Sports Then and Now

Roger Federer wins the 2009 final at the ATP Madrid Open against Rafael Nadal.

2009 did not begin well for the man from Switzerland, Roger Federer. He made headlines after the Australian Open––not because he won––but because he cried a river after his loss. As did his fans.

He did everything better than Rafael Nadal except win the big points when it mattered, losing 5-7, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, 2-6. His tears were out of frustration and anger at himself when he felt the match should have been his.

Understandably Federer started the year under pressure––recovering from a back injury suffered in the waning months of 2008. In the early moments of 2009, the World No. 2 lost in the semifinals at Abu Dhabi to Andy Murray. Then he lost again to Murray in the semifinals at Doha. Finally he captured a win in the finals over Stanislav Wawrinka at the exhibition in Kooyong just prior to the Australian Open.

During the lead-up matches to the finals at the 2009 Australian Open, Federer played well enough. He defeated his early opponents in straight sets. In the 4th round he came back from two sets down to defeat Tomas Berdych in five sets. Then he took out both Juan Martin del Potro and Andy Roddick, respectively in the quarterfinals and semifinals to reach the championship match where Nadal awaited.

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer pose at the beginning of the 2009 Australian Open final.

After he lost the Australian Open final, Federer blamed his erratic first serve for his loss; but up until the final, the Swiss maestro appeared to be hitting the ball well.

Regardless, he left Australia distraught over this lost opportunity. A win would have pulled him equal to Sampras’ record of 14 grand slam titles.

Feeling he needed additional time to heal from his back injury and as a further precaution, Federer decided to withdraw from Dubai and a much-anticipated Davis Cup tie with the United States.

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For the first time, Roger Federer enters the clay court season as the defending French Open Champion.

How do you measure the worth of a man—or, more specifically, the relative strength of a professional tennis player?

You do it by looking at their ranking points. It is simple enough.

The player with the most points earned by participating in tournaments, some mandatory and some voluntary, lets you know where this player stands compared to his peers.

Right now, the current No. 1 player in the world has 10,765 points, accumulated over the past year. But what does that ultimately mean?

Between the top-ranked player in the world, Roger Federer, and the No. 6 ranked player, Nikolay Davydenko, there are 5,430 ATP ranking points as of April 5. On Feb. 1, 2010, the spread between those same two players was over 6,000 points.

While the difference between No. 1 and No. 2 continues to hover at 3,000 points, the distance between the rest of the field in the top six shrunk dramatically following the conclusion of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. The fallout was a true rankings dip for all the top-seeded players not named Rafael Nadal. Read the rest of this entry →

The tennis of Federer and Nadal looks, tastes, and sounds very different.

From the style of their game, to their on-court personas, the physical tools of their success could not be more different.

Rafa exudes passion, energy, intensity, utter commitment in every pump and jump and gesture. Roger exudes a stillness, a calmness, an easy control of emotions: serious and contained almost to the point of self absorption.

One is an explosion of fearsome emotion, the other a still millpond, deep but deadly.

Where Rafa explodes with color and emotion like a Van Gogh painting, Roger is a complex interweaving of subtle tints like a Cezanne.

Yet the canvases of their games are both the result of the same palette of colors, the same brushes, the same obsession.

Start with the raw material: family, roots, upbringing. Read the rest of this entry →

The Florida Keys at the height of spring simply burst with “weather” in all its drama.

Hot sunshine alternates with breezy outbursts. The coastal winds kick up the odd storm, then die away to leave air so heavy it presses like a saturated sponge on the forehead.

Residents and visitors alike can take to the sea, or sink beneath the waving palms, indulge in every sport known to man, or simply sit back and soak in the atmosphere.

The Miami Sony Ericsson Open, the second of the two giant Masters that bestride the early hard court season and the late spring of clay, is in full swing.

It is surely the brightest and breeziest tournament of the year: the sprightly allegro before the transition into the adagio of the second movement on clay.

Crandon Park, home of this popular tournament, is bright and breezy in the old fashioned sense, too. It wears its heart on its sleeve, burgeoning with primary colors, Mexican waves, and more diversions from the tennis than you can count.

Perhaps it is the humidity—touching 90% at its halfway point.

Perhaps it is the ebullience of the Latin American fan-base, here to support a wide field of south American players.

Perhaps it is the temperature, soaring from a night-time in the 50s to a daytime approaching the mid-80s.

Or maybe it’s the uncertainty of what tomorrow will bring: thunder and lightning or cloudless skies.

Whatever it is, Miami seems to live for the moment.

For some players, though, the moment was quickly gone. Read the rest of this entry →

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have met 20 times since 2004.

The root of the rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer began in Miami when the Spaniard was a teenager with a huge reserve of self-belief.

As the 2010 Sony Ericsson Open begins in earnest this week, it might be interesting and informative to examine the tournament that set the bar for their future encounters.

Early on, playing practically perfect tennis against Federer evolved into an art form for Nadal. Nothing seemed to inspire him more or engage his senses more completely than striving to match his considerable strengths against the man many proclaimed then and now as the best player ever to wield a tennis racquet.

The quixotic mission to overtake Federer drove Nadal for 4½ years, finally propelling him into that vaunted No. 1 spot in August 2008.

But let us harken back to March 2004 when newly dominant 22 year-old Roger Federer, feeling ill and stripped of strength, struggled past Russian Nikolay Davydenko during the round of 64 at the NASDAQ-100 Miami Masters.

His next opponent was newcomer 17-year-old Rafael Nadal, ranked No. 36 in the world. Nadal was a hard-hitting left-hander from Spain, a country renowned for its prowess on clay.  This, however, was a hard court event.

Anointed No. 1 a month earlier, Federer arrived in Miami having won 28 matches during the previous nine months, including his first Wimbledon crown in 2003 and his first Australian Open title in 2004.  Even weakened, Federer expected to win this match.

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Indian Wells promised to be one of best tournaments of the year so far. And sure enough, the first Masters of the season, and the biggest tennis event outside the Grand Slams, delivered in spades.

All the top names were present and correct except for the injured world No. 5 Juan Martin Del Potro. The biggest draws in men’s tennis, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, were both back from injury or illness, and the draw promised to repeat some great former matches: Nadal versus Nikolay Davydenko, Federer versus Andy Murray, and ultimately Nadal versus Federer.

But very quickly, the picture changed as seeds fell like nine-pins. The likes of Marin Cilic, David Ferrer, Gilles Simon, Gael Monfils, Radek Stepanek, and several more, went in their first matches.

In the next round, it was Federer, Davydenko, Fernando Verdasco, and Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Murray and Novak Djokovic looked less than convincing in their progress to the quarters and fourth round respectively, and so it turned into a tournament where many of the old guard could show their credentials.

Joining a pumped up Nadal and a powerful Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals was a resurgent set of long-established names such as Ivan Ljubicic, Juan Monaco, and Tommy Robredo.

It made for fascinating tennis, capped by a final between two men with a combined total of 22 years on the professional tour, neither with a win at Indian Wells.

Their outstanding performances deservedly take them to the top of our Power Rankings.

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