It’s happening again, the two best players of all time, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal face off for the 36th time with Rafa leading their head-to-head 23 to 12. To me, Nadal has looked sharper so far, but Federer looks to be in a playful mood and is serving well which is the key for him to beat Rafa again after their spellbinding Australian Open final in January. The event is called the “Fedal” and is arguably the best thing to watch tennis. Who knows how many more of these titanic battles we will see before one of them retires? …
Federer vs Nadal
The above clip reminded me about an old article I wrote about the Fedal rivalry or as I called it then: The Battle of Legends – Federer vs Nadal. I wrote it before Djokovic came thundering in and changed the conversation. Despite the Federer vs Nadal rivalry not being as competitive in head-to-head stats (Nadal always seemed to be quite a convincing favourite), it was magical in the contrast of personalities and playing styles. Being a Federer fan always made it more exciting to watch than Nadal vs Djokovic, because Roger was somehow always the underdog despite often being ahead …
The two quarter-finals of Australian Open were fairly straight forward for both Djokovic and Murray. Well, at least Murray’s 6-3 6-3 6-1 win of Kei Nishikori was. The Scot looks in spectacular form this year and with Lendl in the stands he might be inspired enough to beat a half-injured/hampered/hamstringed (??) Djokovic. Because something was wrong with the Djoker for the first two sets in his 6-4 7-6 6-1 win over David Ferrer, he looked hampered in his movements and his head was hanging like we never saw it in 2011. He still managed to play well enough to get …
I can’t say I’m very surprised with how Australian Open has turned out so far. All the top players are still in the draw and no really major upsets have taken place. Federer, Nadal, Djokovic and Murray are all ready for the quarters and so let’s look at the opposition: Federer vs Del Potro – Del Potro looked back to grand slam winner form against Kohlschreiber and if he can keep that up he will be dangerous for Federer who has had problems getting past the QF stage of Grand Slams of late. On the other hand, Federer looked absolutely …