So it’s come to this. In a competition ravaged with upsets, with the top two seeds eliminated before the second week, the six-time champion bundled out by a wildcard in the second round, the 9th seed playing the 17th seed in the lowest-seeded final in nearly ten years… and after all that, we’ve still got the final we all wanted to see.
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The greatest rivalry of all?
We have been privileged in the last decade to be able to watch arguably the two greatest players of all time pit themselves against each other in so many truly epic encounters.
They’ve given us a lifetime of memories, both individually and collectively, and it seems destiny that, after their careers were seemingly over, they should meet again on the big stage.
Currently, Nadal leads Federer 23-11 in the head-to-head stakes, but the record evens up considerably if you take out the clay-court matches, a surface on which Nadal is unarguably the greatest of all time.
Nadal leads 9-7 on hard courts, including 3-0 at the Australian Open, while Federer leads 4-1 in Tennis Masters Cup and ATP World Tour Finals matches on the same surface.
Considering the surface at Rod Laver Arena is, according to Federer, playing faster than it has since the strip was changed in 2008, it makes for an enthralling contest.
The fatigue factor
Both Federer and Nadal have staged remarkable comebacks from potentially career-threatening injuries in the last 12 months. And with both being pushed to the limit in tough five-set semi-finals, you have to wonder whether both their bodies can hold up for one more crack.
Federer is without doubt in a better position to recover from his ordeal, his five-setter with Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka being as bruise-free as five-setters get, with most points being completed quickly thanks to the large amount of unforced errors that both players committed on the evening. In addition, Federer has had the extra day to recover from the ordeal.
Nadal, in contrast, had to summon every ounce of energy to defeat Grigor Dimitrov in a five-set epic that featured some incredibly long rallies. And with only two days to recover from the ordeal, you have to wonder whether he has the energy in his tank to play another match at the same standard.
The popularity contest
Federer and Nadal are two of the most popular players tennis has ever seen, but ever since the possibility of the pair meeting in the final first became clear, the wave of adulation from the fans at Melbourne Park has bordered on obsessive.
The loveable Stan Wawrinka was made into a pantomime villain on Thursday night as the crowd willed Federer over the line, while Grigor Dimitrov was made to face a similar predicament the day later. But now that they’re coming face to face, who will the crowd support, if anyone?
How low can you go?
Incredibly, despite this match being between two players with a combined 31 Grand Slam titles between them, tonight’s final is the first time since the 2014 US Open final that neither of the top two seeds has made it to the final.
And it has also guaranteed that the winner will be the lowest since that same match, where 14th-seeded Marin Cilic defeated 10th-seed Kei Nishikori in straight sets.
Already, Federer, the 17th seed, is the lowest-ranked player to make a Grand Slam final since 23rd seed Robin Soderling made the 2009 French Open final, where he coincidentally lost to Federer himself, and the lowest-ranked finalist at the Australian Open since the unseeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga made it all the way back in 2008.
If Federer should triumph, he would be the lowest-ranked Grand Slam champion since an unseeded Gaston Gaudio won the French Open all the way back in 2004.
Who’s the GOAT?
For the last decade, tennis fans have often engaged in heated arguments over whether Federer or Nadal is the greatest player, not just of this era, but of all time. But perhaps all the conjecture can be put to bed in the aftermath of tonight’s game.
With the match being played on a hard court, neither the “King of Clay” Nadal nor the “King of Grass” Federer have the advantage of playing on their ideal surface.
And with neither man seemingly at the peak of their powers, both having had to fight back from potentially career-threatening injuries in the last 12 months, neither has the disadvantage of being pitted against a full-strength opponent in their prime.
Emerge triumphant with his 18th Grand Slam, and finally having conquered Nadal after nearly 10 years of Grand Slam defeats, and it would take a hard judge to not deem Federer the greatest of all time.
But should Nadal take his record against Federer to 10-2 at the Slams, with a potential victory at the French Open in a few months’ time to take his Slam tally to 16, the odds swing back in the Spaniard’s favour.
In a match between two old champs who might have thought they would never scale these heights again, tonight’s final might be the final exclamation point on two of the greatest careers men’s tennis has ever seen.
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