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Nadal Rolls Past Federer Into Australian Open Final

Jan 24th 2014

It was a New Year, a new racquet and seemingly a new Roger. But unfortunately for fans of the Swiss maestro, it was the same result as Rafael Nadal powered into the final with a straight-sets win over the sixth-seeded Roger Federer. Nadal was far too good as Federer shelved the aggressive play that saw him dismantle Tsonga and Murray in the earlier rounds and played right into the blistered and bleeding hands of the world No. 1. The loss means that Nadal will now play Stanislas Wawrinka, who on Monday will become the new Swiss No. 1, for the Australian Open title.

It was billed as one of the matches of the tournament so far. The world No. 1 Rafael Nadal taking on the resurgent, aging champion and crowd favorite Roger Federer. A match that used to be a promoter’s dream final came a round earlier because of Federer’s drop outside the top four.  Despite losing that tag of the promoters’ dream, it brought the crowd in droves. Tennis legends like Pete Sampras even flew into Melbourne for the Friday night match-up. The energy around Melbourne Park was simply electric.

While the game had promised to be a five-hour epic, after Nadal took the first set in a tiebreak, it ran along the script of their past meetings. Federer’s chip-and-charges and the audacious drop shots displayed in his earlier rounds were signs of a supreme confidence. This confidence dissipated in minutes as the nature of playing the world No. 1  was seemingly very different from playing lesser players, even those only slightly lower-ranked.

It was a different Roger Federer than we’d seen in the past week. It never appeared that he believed that he could beat Rafael Nadal as he fell into a baseline duel with the Spaniard, seemingly wary that his aggressive tactics would not fare well against the top seed. This altered game plan exposed his frail backhand and his dearth of attacking options from that distance.

But saying that Federer let Nadal walk all over him is too harsh. Nadal was untouchable, dictating play with his forehand and never giving Federer a chance to enter the match. He constantly forced Federer to fight for his serve, pushing him to deuce often and breaking him four times. Despite being broken only once in the third set, Nadal gave very few opportunities on his own serve and only surrendered two break points in the whole match. His run-around cross-court forehand was superlative as he found his rhythm on the baseline. When Federer attempted to change the pattern of the match by serving and volleying and varying the speed of the ball, Nadal was brilliant, passing Federer with ease and dispatching Federer’s slice backhands with his pinpoint forehand.

A visibly disappointed Federer lamented his lack of opportunities against Nadal’s serve. “It was frustrating, the lack of chances I was able to create on the return,” a downcast Federer said. “Because I hung around the first couple of sets. So that was frustrating because I thought I was going to get into more of his service games.”

Federer also admitted he was unable to implement his aggressive game style against an almost perfect Nadal. “It's totally different playing Rafa over anybody else. Playing Murray or Rafa is day and night,” he stated.  “It's not because of the level necessarily, but it's just every point is played in a completely different fashion and I have to totally change my game.”

But overall Federer was pleased with his tournament and felt like he had much to give moving forward. “It was a great start to the season for me,” he reflected. “It would have been nice to win Brisbane, it would have been nice to win here tonight, but you can't have it all.  I think this is a very good start to the season for me overall. I played some really good tennis here. I still feel my best tennis is only ahead of me right now.”

An exhausted Nadal was incredibly pleased with how he played. “I played well tonight. I think I played probably my best match of the tournament,” he said. He knew what Federer was going to bring to the match. “It’s nothing new that he's playing aggressive. He's a very aggressive player. He's one of these players that he's able to win the point in one shot, in two shots. Not everybody's able to play that way. He's one of these players that are able to play that way. That's very difficult to stop.”

And Nadal had nothing but positive things to say about his opponent in the final, Stanislas Wawrinka. “He's playing great. I know him. He's a good friend, a great guy,” Nadal said.

I’m so happy for him that he's in the final. He deserves it. He's playing better and better every year.  He's serving unbelievable. He's hitting the ball very strong from the baseline. And he’s very, very quick. It will be very difficult to play against him on Sunday. I know it will be a very, very tough match.”

It isn’t the final that most thought it would be. But one feels that if Stanislas Wawrinka can summon the discipline and the finesse that he’s displayed in the past two weeks, then he’s more than capable of upsetting the world No. 1.