Are we all tired of Rafa/Roger FeDal rivalry yet? I'm not for one. if you are a fan of tennis & have been watching closely, Roger Federer is playing better than he has been in a very long time. His movement, backhand seems to have improved. Overall I think Mr. Paul Annacone has done a good job, & why not? He did afterall coach the great Pete Sampras.
Overall Rafa is leading in their head 2 head meetings. They have both split their hardcourt meetings to 6, I think all other wins for Rafa do count & favor him being that Rafa pretty much has owned Federer for their past encounters, although the match really could go either way, if Rafa can bounce back from today's match which no doubt he is tired. This is where Maymo comes in & hoping that man will heal Rafa's body in time. Don't count Rafa out though, remember Austrlian Open marathon semi-final & final? If there is one person who can do it it's Rafa Nadal. And what a vindication it would be for Rafa after 2009 he couldn't even win one match to now he's in a final & facing his toughest/roughest opponent, his rival to end all rivalries; Roger Federer.
Rafa is improved & so is Roger.. should be an epic match! Vamos Rafa!
My pick is Rafa Nadal in 3 sets.
London 2010 Final Preview
Video Interviews:
ORDER OF PLAY:
CENTRE COURT
Doubles Final - 3:30 pm GMT/ 10:30 am ET
[2] D Nestor (CAN) / N Zimonjic (SRB) vs [3] M Bhupathi (IND) / M Mirnyi (BLR)
Singles Final - Not before 5.30 pm GMT/ 12:30 pm ET
[1] R Nadal (ESP) vs [2] R Federer (SUI)
Some Quotes:
Rafa Nadal vs. Roger Federer
"Obviously I'm really looking forward to playing against Rafa tomorrow," Federer said. "Who wouldn't?" then he continued. "I'm really enjoying myself and I hope I can produce something good tomorrow. Rafa showed today why he is the best player in the world at the moment and it should be a good match."A victory for Rafa would cap an outstanding season that has seen the 24-year-old win three straight Grand Slam titles, lifting his total to nine, and becoming the dominant world No. 1.
"We haven't played that much recently but I'm looking forward to playing him. Our styles match up well and he's always very respectful, which I appreciate."
"We've had some epics and some matches that didn't quite live up to expectations. Hopefully tomorrow will be a great match."
On top of that, it would mean that he and Andre Agassi would be the only two men in tennis history to have won all four Grand Slam championships, the year-end title, the Davis Cup and Olympic gold.
Rafa and Roger have played fairly sparingly in the past couple of seasons but Rafa has won six of their last seven matches – including the 2009 Aussie Open final. The world No.1 currently leads their head-to-head 14-7 but Federer has had two convincing wins over Rafa at the ATP World Finals in the past, denying him in the semi-finals back in 2006 and 2007.
"I hope we can live up to expectations and really play a great match against each other again," Federer told reporters.While Federer barely broke a sweat in disposing of the disappointing Novak Djokovic on Saturday at London's O2 Arena, Rafa toiled for 3 hours, 11 minutes against Andy Murray in one of the finest matches of 2010.
Rafa's powers of recovery will be tested yet again as he prepares to meet Federer in Sunday's dream finale at the biggest event he's never won.
Rafa pulled off the improbable at last year's Australian Open. Battling more than five hours against Fernando Verdasco in one of the most bruising encounters in tournament history, he returned less than two days later to beat Roger Federer in a five-set classic. Clearly, downing Federer in arguably the greatest match of all time at Wimbledon in 2008 wasn't enough.
"I don't know what's going to happen," Rafa told reporters. "You can imagine, right now I am very tired. That's the truth, " then he continued. "I think I [am] play[ing] better than ever on this surface. I am fresh mentally”.
"When you play indoors against the best players of the world, [there] are more specialists than me. You can play defensive for moments, but you have to come back to the attack. If you're not playing really well, it's impossible.
"For that reason, I say [this] is the most difficult tournament for me to win - not only for the surface [but] for the opponents, too. I am lucky I played really well and I am in the final."
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