Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal: Two Sides of the Same Coin?

This is perhaps the umpteenth article to be written about Rafa and Federer after the Sunday thriller at Melbourne Park and before the "Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility" began to kick in, I felt I had to contribute one from my side as well.

So I wrote about two things that were gnawing my mind from the time Roger lost his 18th final and about two players who have ended up taking most of my conscious thinking.

Roger Federer: This man has made tennis a way of life, not only for himself but also for millions of his fans all over. The messages in his bulletin board in his website in response to the news of his loss down under was a standing testimony to that.

When his emotions got the better of him, his fans couldn't control theirs as well. They had to weep too, it was the least they could do.

And had he won that one match, it would have been an equaliser to a benchmark set by another of the world's greatest players: Pete Sampras. He didn't and thus still remains one agonising number short.

Though everyone knows it's just a matter of time before he touches that mark and eclipses it, there appears to be a serious contender for the new world record.

Rafael Nadal: A 22-year-old boy prodigy, he is the next best thing to watch out for. Till now, he has six slams to his credit and if he continues this tempestuous form, wouldn't it be a matter of time before he surpasses Roger's mastery of 14 slams?

With his win at Melbourne Park yesterday, he has shed off his "clay" tag that has prefixed his name for such a long time now and possibly is heralding an unspoken intuition that he is there to stay at the top. Maybe another 237 weeks and /or more than that.

He became the first Spaniard to win the Australian Open and became one of those few players to win a slam in each surface and with this victory has announced his arrival in the new year in a strong manner.

With RG virtually and in an implied fashion his propriety, it remains to be seen if he can successfully defend his SW19 crown. If he does defend it, then Federer gets just one shot to conquer 14 this year and if by any chance, he fails to do so, then I wonder will Federer's eventual conquering of the 14 hold much value?

Then will it be a matter of time before Rafa edges Federer on that aspect too? And if something like that happens, will we get to see a different sort of competition between this two and a fight to see who will set a new target for the most number of slams?