Federer and Nadal, or Athens Versus Sparta: Domination of Two Heavyweights

“Federer’s camp was conquering the world. Federer had just won the Australian Open and was the new world number one. He feared no one.

However, one day in Miami in 2004, they saw a man running towards there camp. He was completely exhausted. The marathon man fell to his knees and spoke the words that nobody had imagined, ‘the Spartan is coming!’ The Spartan of course was Rafael Nadal. He beat Federer that day in straight sets. Who would have known that these two warriors would be at arms regularly for the next 5 years.”

How fitting that these two warriors can be compared to Athens and Sparta. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have given us one of the most exciting rivalries in sports history, let alone tennis. They have conquered 21 of the last 23 grand slams and have met in a record breaking 7 finals of these prestigious titles. To add to this they have also demolished nearly all opposition at the Masters level too. Since 2005 Nadal and Federer have won 31 of the 52 Masters Series titles. This is domination at its best.

Nevertheless, it was Federer who was the more dominant player until 2008. Just like Athens whose men were feared when caught in battle; nobody could challenge Federer. Except for the Spartans, who gave warnings to the Athenians before finally making their breakthrough through the city of Athens. In 2008 the power house from Mallorca finally made his breakthrough at Wimbledon by beating Federer in the final, who many consider to be the greatest tennis match ever played. It was a tennis match for the ages that went to 5 sets and showed off skills that other tennis players could only imagine of ever attaining. The all mighty Fed could not hold off Nadal. Federer’s army was folding as Nadal kept attacking with every means possible to dismantle the man from Switzerland. In the end he finally succeeded. It was now Nadal’s time to conquer the world as Federer did in 2004, 2006 – 07.

Nevertheless, in 2009 Nadal did not conquer the way he would have wanted to. His troublesome knees could not handle the pressure they once could on the tennis court. Nadal had put them through too much in the past year and they were screaming for a break. This break was a blessing in disguise, since it made Nadal wiser in picking fewer tournaments to play for this year, plus improving his game in order to spend less time on court by shortening the points.

However this year Nadal has replicated Federer in winning three grand slams. The Nadal camp is finally taking over. Although these two fighters battle it out in two very different styles, they conquer the tennis world in similar fashion. It has been a vintage year for Nadal, but will he be able to conquer as consistently as Federer did the past decade? Unless he’s knees crumble I don’t see why not.