If Federer stays in third spot throughout the hard-court swing in North America, he could end up having to play Nadal, the world No1 and Wimbledon champion, in the semi-finals of the US Open, which could have all sorts of consequences.
New York is supposed to be Federer’s town, as he has appeared in the last six finals, with his only defeat coming against Juan Martin del Potro in last summer’s title-match, but it sounds as though Nadal is going to arrive at Flushing Meadows next month as ready as he has ever been to win the US Open and to complete his collection of grand slam titles.
When Andre Agassi achieved his career grand slam, he was 29, and when Federer finished his set of majors, by taking last season’s French Open, he was 27, yet if Nadal can win in America, he will join that exclusive club at the age of 24. The only other players to have won all four slams at least once are Fred Perry, Don Budge, Rod Laver and Roy Emerson.
Nadal is winning grand slam titles at a faster rate than Federer did. At the age of 24 years and one month, Nadal has eight slams, while, at that same stage in his career, the Swiss had six.
Nadal has never reached the final on the New York concrete. The last couple of years he lost in the semi-finals. In 2008, he was exhausted by the time he reached America as that summer, in addition to achieving the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double, he had flown to China and back to win an Olympic gold medal in Beijing. He lost to Andy Murray in New York.
Last summer, his knees cost him his titles in Paris and London, and an abdominal strain ended any chance of success at the US Open. Nadal won just six games against Del Potro, an Argentine with a nasty forehand, for his heaviest defeat at the slams. “I hope to be ready, to be healthy, because for the last few years I have had problems,” Nadal said. “Maybe this year it will be different. Now the most important thing is for me to rest in Majorca, to enjoy the summer there and then have a mini-pre-season practice there.”
John McEnroe, who called Nadal “an animal”, said that this could be the year that the Majorcan holds up the trophy in the Arthur Ashe Stadium. “Nadal wants to win the US Open so badly. It would be hard not to pick him at this time even though he’s never won it,” McEnroe said to the ATP Champions Tour website.
“The guy’s just an animal; he’s mentally and physically incredible and he can definitely do it if he’s in this shape. The conditions in New York don’t suit Nadal so well and he needs to make his body hold up. So I think after Wimbledon he is going to take some time off and get his knees recovered and then maybe not play too many matches before the Open.”
Everyone seems agreed that Federer, who lost in the quarter-finals at the All England Club to the eventual runner-up Tomas Berdych, will never again dominate men’s tennis.
“Federer has done so amazingly well that anything but a win is almost considered a bad tournament,” McEnroe said. “But he’s won the Australian Open and been in two quarter-finals at majors this year, and almost any other player would love that.
“It’s inevitable at some stage, when you’ve won 16 slams and you’ve broken every record, that maybe you lose that will at certain times. I think Federer is going to win a couple more majors but you won’t see him dominate the way he has before.”
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Tiffany Mai Cervantes
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