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Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, once more for old times' sake

Roar Rookie
28th January, 2017
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Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are two of the modern day greats. (AAP Image/Martin Philbey)
Roar Rookie
28th January, 2017
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Throughout history, professional sports have been dominated by great rivalries.

Federer vs Nadal live scores, blog


Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg, Manchester United and Liverpool in the EPL, and Australia and England in the cricket, just to name a few.

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In this Sunday’s Australian Open Final, one of the greatest rivalries in all of sports will be reignited, as Roger Federer takes on Rafael Nadal.

It’s a scenario that was unfathomable at the start of this year’s tournament.

Both men had spent the latter part of 2016 battling injury: Federer with his knee, and Nadal with his wrist.

Coming into the Australian summer neither man had played much tennis, and expectations of their 2017 campaigns were low.

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Not only had Nadal and Federer seemingly dropped off, but also the competition appeared to have caught up.

The ‘big four’ had quickly become the ‘big two’, as Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic separated themselves from the pack.

Leading into this year’s Australian Open, you could’ve been forgiven for expecting the world’s top two ranked players to make the final.

When Djokovic lost to Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin in the second round however, there was an audible sigh of relief amongst tennis fans.

“Thank goodness for that, at least it won’t be a Djokovic and Murray final this year.”

The first murmurs of a Federer–Nadal final began when the Swiss set Rod Laver Arena alight against Tomas Berdych in the third round.

It was Federer at his best that night, as everything he touched turned to gold and left people wondering, “Can he go the whole way?”

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But then the reality set in that he would likely have go through Murray in the quarterfinals – or at least that’s what we thought.

To the shock of almost everyone, Murray was eliminated in the fourth round by 50th ranked Mischa Zverev.

This was when the nostalgia started to get serious, as the two most credible threats to a Federer–Nadal final were now out of the way.

Slowly but surely Federer and Nadal inched their way through each round, until finally the dream match became a reality.

While much of the excitement surrounding the final comes from nostalgia, it’s hard not to be happy for two athletes with such outstanding character.

Federer broke the mould in 2009 when he broke down into tears after losing an epic Australian Open final to Nadal.

He reminded the world that our sporting heroes aren’t so different from us, and that heartbreak isn’t limited to the common folk.

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Unlike many sporting rivalries, there’s no animosity between Federer and Nadal, but instead a sense of comradery.

Both men are among the few who understand the dedication it takes to reach the pinnacle of an individual sport.

Nadal holds the distinction of being the only man who can truly say they’ve gotten the best of Federer, holding 23 wins against the greatest of all time.

13 of these Nadal victories have been on clay court surface, where he’s proven to be near unstoppable.

Federer admitted after his semi–final win that these clay court losses have affected the way he’s approached Nadal in the past, but he is confident that it will be different this time around.

Regardless of how the match plays out, we should all take the time to appreciate that we may be seeing arguably the game’s two greatest players square off in a grand slam final, one last time.

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