Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer
For the past five years, we all know that the world of tennis has been dominated by the Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal duopoly. They have rarely let any other player near the top, in fact there have only been three players, other than Federer and Nadal, who have managed to win any Grand Slam title since 2005.
In 2005, the Australian Open was won by the Russian player Marat Safin and the young Serbian player, Novak Djokovic, won the Australian Open in 2008. Then the 2009 US Open was won by the Argentinean, Juan Marin Del Potro.
Other than these three champions, all the other Grand Slam titles have been owned by Federer or Nadal. Hence, whenever these two enter a tournament, it is just expected for them to be playing against one another at the final.
Due to their top positions in every grand tournament, Federer and Nadal have been hogging the first and second positions in the ATP world rankings, which they have been swapping in between each other since the 25th of July 2005.
During the past five years, there has only been a total of twenty-three weeks in which Nadal and Federer have not maintained first or second positions simultaneously, this distruption in their amazing rankings was a result of Nadal falling in positioning for a while. But as of the 6th of June this year, after his victory at the French Open, Nadal has upheld his number one position.
Federer, on the other hand, had maintained his top position until Wimbledon 2010, in which he was eliminated in the quarterfinals (whereas Nadal was the champion), and because of this his ranking has dropped to world number three for the first time in almost seven years.
The Swiss and the Spaniard have had a very prominent ongoing rivalry for quite some time now which is considered by many tennis critics to be the greatest rivalry of all time. The Swiss born, Federer, had been undefeated for almost a decade until the Spanish bull, Nadal, came along and proved himself to be a match for Federer.
They have been the only two players to have faced each other in seven Grand Slam finals out of which Nadal has won five. And just to spice things up even further in the world of tennis, these two Grand Slam champions have entered the Rogers Cup, which will commence on the 9th of August in Toronto, Canada.
In this tournament Nadal is the top seed and Djokovic is the second seed followed by Federer as the third seed. The main draw will determine whether these two will be able to face each other in the final or not. Two of the top seeds will be put at the top and bottom of the draw and another draw will take place to decide which half the 3rd and 4th seeded players will be placed in.
This results in a 50% probability of Federer being in the top half and getting a chance to play against Nadal in the semi-final round. Moreover, if Federer is placed in the bottom half he will have a chance to face Nadal in the final of the competition which is scheduled to take place on the 15th of August. This will be more exciting for fans.
However, Federer will need to improve his form if he wants to reach the finals. Federer and Nadal have been a part of the Rogers Cup every year since 2005 and they have both won this title twice – Federer in 2004 and 2006 and Nadal in 2005 and 2008.
It will be a tough competition and with Federer not at the top of his game it is questionable as to whether he will be able to make it to the final, or even to the semis. He will be turning 30 next year so according to many reports this may be one of his few chances left for him to go up against the 24 year old Nadal, who is currently at the peak of his career.
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