Can anyone beat Rafael Nadal over the best of five sets on clay? Can anyone
stop him marching on further to demolish the monumental records of Bjorn
Borg at Roland Garros? Roger Federer thinks he can, or at least he says he
can. He’s looking forward to it.
“I feel I have the right tactics, I have the right game, and I have the
fitness to beat him,” said Federer. “I wanted to be in this position. It
would be much better to win the French Open by beating him. It looks good
for me.”
Either Federer is fibbing, whistling a happy tune to keep up his spirits, or
he’s not normal. Any other player, especially anyone who has watched Nadal’s
monstrous progress through the draw, would feel nothing but dread at the
prospect. The evidence of the past fortnight is clear: Federer has
spluttered between the sublime and the bewilderingly ordinary; Nadal has
torn the heart from every opponent and stamped it into the dust, playing
better even than last year.
Two straws of comfort can be extracted for Federer. In the third round, he
played his best match of the year against Mario Ancic, and on Friday, for
one set, albeit when the match was clearly lost, Novak Djokovic managed to
match Nadal for a while and even to control him, briefly. Federer will not
lack for motiva-tion. Borg, who has been in Paris, put it at its simplest.
“If Roger wins he will definitely be the greatest player who ever played the
game,” he said.
Borg was also sceptical about Federer’s frequent insistence that defending his
Wimbledon title is his annual priority. “This is the biggest goal for him.
He wants to win this very, very badly,” said Borg.
Perhaps so badly he dare not admit it. Federer has long seemed to be in
denial, or at least understandably reticent, about the size of the task of
beating Nadal in Paris. Three years ago, when Nadal won his first French
title, Federer thought he was rather like the young Lleyton Hewitt. Both had
achieved a great deal at a young age, but both traded on being relatively
unknown. Federer believed that once he had worked out how to play Nadal, he
would have his measure, but Nadal has grown from irritant to mythical beast,
and Federer is still searching for the tactical keys to the gate of the
ultimate prize.
Although his form has fluctuated, Federer, advised by his new coach, Jose
Higueras, has altered his tactics, practising certain techniques with Nadal
in mind. Chief among these is the drop-shot, which he used to great effect
in his semi-final against Gael Monfils.
Without access to the Higueras dossier of how to beat Nadal, one has to
surmise, but it might contain the following: Roger, you must get in a high
percentage of first serves; on second serve, take risks, even at the expense
of double faults, otherwise Nadal will get you on the back foot every time.
Do not get sucked into a baseline slug-fest, trying to out-hit and outlast
him. Be very choosy about when you come in to volley. Use the short angles
to take him wide; when he is forced to hit his backhand with one hand, or to
slice his forehand like a squash-shot, come into the net and finish it. The
volley must be conclusive. Use the drop shot even if it doesn’t work out to
begin with, anything to get him away from the baseline. Lastly: don’t let
your standard of play or concentration drop for a moment.
And here is the size of the mountain: even if Federer does all that, he might
not win more than one set. For Nadal, like Borg in his day, looks plain
unbeatable over five sets on clay. IT IS appropriate that Borg will witness
the final, for comparisons between himself and Nadal at Roland Garros are
inescapable. Beating Federer would give Nadal four consecutive French Open
wins, level with Borg; he will also equal Borg’s record of consecutive
matches won, 28; and if he wins in straight sets, which is the favoured
scenario among most experts, he will join Borg as one of only three players
to win the tournament without dropping a set.
Borg arrived on Friday afternoon, as Nadal beat Djokovic. His timing was good
for he arrived in the third set, just in time to see that one of his records
is safe for the moment. In 1978, Borg won the title for the loss of 32
games, easily the fewest in the Open era, which began in 1968. In getting to
the semi-final stage, Borg lost 26 games, and this year Nadal was ahead of
that, losing 25. But Borg went on to slaughter Cor-rado Barazzutti and
Guillermo Vilas, losing just one game in the semi-final and five in the
final.
Together, though, they stand apart. Some 1,250 men have played in the French
Open singles since 1968 and the records of Borg and Nadal are by far the
best. Nadal has never lost in Paris; Borg lost only twice in 51 matches,
both to Adriano Panatta. But after their records, their speed on court and
their capacity to fight for every point as if it were for the championship,
one is struck not by their similarity but their extreme divergence. In
temperament and body language they are opposites. Borg was cold, ruthless,
impassive; Nadal is violently emotional.
As for their styles of play, Borg was full of praise for Nadal yesterday, just
as he was for Federer. Nadal, too, is ultra-polite when he is frequently
asked about Borg. What he doesn’t say, because he knows it could be
construed as disrespectful, is that the game Borg played 30 years ago with
his wooden racket is astonishingly slow in comparison with the modern game.
Borg and his contemporaries are as far from Nadal-style tennis as a palm
court orchestra is from a punk-rock band.
The power game from the back of the court has led to an enormous shift in
tactics. In the old days, the way to deal with a baseliner such as Nadal was
to get him out of position and get to the net to finish off the point. You
might do it off a good service, or you might rally with him and wait until
he hit a ball short, around the service line, and then hit a hard, deep
approach shot and steam in. The odds then would all be in your favour.
However, modern players, and Nadal more often and effectively than anyone
else, can hit passing shots with power and accuracy even when off balance
and on the back foot. Nadal can do it when he’s jumping sideways and
falling, like a gunslinger jumping for cover but still firing. The racket is
the reason. Modern rackets, which are made from composites of graphite, are
lighter and produce far more power for effort than their wooden predecessors.
To produce power, Borg needed to be foot-perfect, to turn his body side-on in
the classic way and stroke with his arm, with the face of the racket
following towards the target. Nadal and his contemporaries can slash with
arm and wrist, hitting up at and across the line of the ball to create the
racket-head speed that produces such extraordinary power and spin.
On clay, Nadal has brought this counter-punching style to a terrible
perfection, and it has proved too much for everyone, even for Federer.
Once more, then, Federer must take his punishment. He will not be slow to
leave Paris. He will brush off the red dirt, rinse his mouth to spit out the
bitter taste of defeat, and head off to find some grass.
Borg: This final is going to be different. By Barry Flatman
Bjorn Borg yesterday declared Roger Federer better placed than ever to upset
Rafael Nadal’s dominance on clay and earn the indisputable title of the
greatest ever. Despite Federer’s indifferent semifi nal win over Gael Monfi
ls, the Swede stated: “If he wins Paris, there’s no doubt he’s the greatest
player who ever played. A lot of people say no one can beat Nadal because of
how he’s been playing. But Roger has a really good chance. It’s the best I
have seen Roger play on clay in the past three years. He’s made a few
changes this year. He’s slightly more patient when he plays but he’s also
more aggressive. It’s like he’s waiting for the right shot to be aggressive.
Sometimes before, when he played Nadal, he was too aggressive in certain
positions when maybe he should have been more patient.”
Borg admitted he has a closer personal relationship with Federer than Nadal,
and he senses the senior contestant has formulated a revised game plan.
“Roger knows exactly how to play Nadal. They have played this spring in
Monte Carlo and Hamburg [when Federer lost both times] and right now Roger
is playing much better compared to those two tournaments,” said Borg.
Unquestionably Borg’s two most painful memories of Roland Garros are his two
defeats: both to Italian Adriano Panatta, as a debutant in 1973, and in
1976. “The reasons I lost to Adriano were he had a big game and he mixed up
things, too. Maybe there’s a similarity to what Roger should have done
before against Rafa. For the past three years he’s been using the same
tactics but this fi nal is going to be different”
HOW NADAL AND BORG COMPARE
At Roland Garros: if Nadal wins today, he will emulate Borg’s
achievement of four successive French Open titles. He is the second man,
after the Swede, to have reached the final more than once without dropping a
set (Borg did this in 1978, 1980 and 1981). Borg holds the record for fewest
games lost in reaching the fi nal, 27 in 1978. Nadal has so far conceded 37
games
In Grand Slams: this is Nadal’s sixth final in his fi rst 17 Grand Slams,
mirroring Borg’s record. If the Spaniard wins, it will be his fourth Grand
Slam title. Borg reached that feat in his 15th Grand Slam appearance and had
11 career victories in tennis’s major championships
