Final we all wanted

Now this is the biggie: Roger Federer versus Rafael Nadal in a Grand Slam final. Maybe the names should be the other way around. Nadal is currently number one in men’s tennis. But after the dismal 2008 which Federer suffered (gee, only one Grand Slam to Nadal’s two and a loss of the No. 1 ranking), the Swiss is raring to go. For the first time in three years, he’s the hunter and Nadal is the defender.

In the face-off between the two, Nadal leads 12 matches to six. But it’s an intriguing mix of matches here. On clay, in 10 matches, Federer has defeated Nadal just the once, in Hamburg in 2007. Witness a slight shift in fortune as we change court surfaces. Three meetings on grass, in which Federer leads two to one (that’s three Wimbledon finals) and five meetings on hard courts, where Federer leads three to two. So does this give Federer an edge over Nadal? Can the perfect Swiss manage to deconstruct the fighting Spaniard the way he did Juan Martin Del Potro in the quarterfinal? Or will Nadal’s dogged determination create a breakthrough?

On hard courts, the odds and the edge are with Federer. Just as Nadal deconstructed him at Roland Garros last year. Federer did the same at the Masters Cup in Shanghai in 2007. There’s also history here. Federer’s first Australian Open in 2004 got him the number one slot. There’s Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Slams staring him in the face.

There’s a tiny bit of revenge at work here too. Nadal too wants his first hard court Slam title and he’s worked hard to get here. Both players are well aware of where they stand in history. This match provides one more opportunity for fans of one of the great rivalries of all time.