The Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal Rivalry: Turning Point

(Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images)

The Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal rivalry has raged on for the best part of four years now, with Nadal taking the lions' share of victories. While it may be fair to say that Federer's recent return to the pinnacle of the tennis world was helped by Nadal's knee injury, there is no doubt that there has been a huge momentum shift in their rivalry.

With the most likely prospect of the pair meeting in Cincinnati, due to the expected birth of Federer's child, as well as Nadal's knees possibly needing more rest perhaps taking at least one of them out of running for Montreal, I think Federer is by far the favourite. 

Furthermore, if they are to meet in further Grand Slams, or even as soon as the US Open, again, I would fancy Federer to overcome the all-to-often stumbling block that he seems to meet when playing Nadal, such is the fearless ferocity of his game.

There are many reasons why I feel this way.

If we look back to their most recent meeting in Madrid, where Federer triumphed 6-4, 6-4, we can see many new tactics that Federer has employed both in the physical side of play, and, I feel most importantly, also in the mental side of things. The fact that Nadal may not have been 100 percent that day is of absolutely no relevance.

Firstly, and perhaps most noticeably, we saw the drop shot. We've all heard how Federer used to say that he felt as if he was messing around by playing the drop shot. However, things have changed. The Swiss man has decided that this is something that can hurt Nadal, and now he has embraced the shot with his usual precision to perfection style.

Disguising this shot excellently, he used it at the right time in the right place against Nadal, and nearly every time it worked. However, he did not fall victim to over usage or predictability, and therefore, it was most effective. He mainly used this shot when Nadal was not only out of position but on his backhand side, which made it virtually impossible for Nadal to suddenly run in and reach the ball, let alone get it back—he was running in the opposite direction.

How can I be sure that he will use it in the future? Because not only was it a success, but  we saw Federer use this shot time and again against his opponents when Nadal was still in the French Open. Many feel it was in preparation for facing Nadal in the final. 

The Madrid final also provided us some very interesting new serve-and-volley tactics, which, once again, were employed by Federer.

Federer mixed things up very well. He would sometimes serve and volley on his second serve, and soon enough Nadal started to anticipate it, and therefore hit a short dipping ball, so it was hard for Federer to get. No sooner than Nadal had started to do this, Federer then started to fake a serve and volley.

This would mean that he would pretend to move into the net but would simply and suddenly step back, Nadal would already have hit a short ball that would only reach the service line, and Federer would be in control of the point.

This was a very, very clever move by Federer, and he would then change between serve and vollying on the second serve, and faking it. This left Nadal stranded as to what return he should produce, and usually left Federer in control of the point.

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