Tennis: Federer and Nadal to Clash at Miami, Sharapova and Azarenka

Tennis fans yesterday were greeted to two foreseeable, yet unpredicted scenarios: The victories of Federer and Nadal in the quarterfinals, and the continued progress of Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka in the women's draw.

Sharapova and Azarenka's relatively smooth voyage thus far is, to say it moderately, slightly surprising—considering that neither player has been the moment player for some time, nor have been known of late for any great consistency.

Yet, Sharapova has conjured her second consecutive semifinal and faces former champion Azarenka. These two, however, are no lightweights; in lieu of Wozniacki and Clijsters, we do not just have top 50 just-made-its—Sahrapova and Azarenka are the real deal.

How the former thrashed Petkovic today, and the latter similarly Zvonereva should be of some note—both with bagels and a three. Both matches ended, 6-0, 6-3, in the final two sets, and provided some exciting refreshment for the upcoming final: hard-hitting, ball-clubbing action.

Rest assured, having Sharapova and Azarenka in the final will most certainly be worth the ticket.

The ticket most people will be wanting to get their hands on, however, is today's night match: The marquee match-up between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.

Yes, they are meeting in yet another dream (semi)final. For the first time in six years, the top two players of this decade will not be meeting in a final, which perhaps says something about the state of tennis nowadays—or perhaps about the state of Novak Djokovic—but equally signifies a new era in their rivalry.

Only six years have passed since they last met in America (at the 2005 Miami final), but it may as well have been an eon—so much has the game changed. The careers of these two evolved and flourished so much that we may well see the makings of a milestone tonight.

This fabulous rivalry, which had found its inception here all those seven years ago in 2004, has finally found itself here again, 22 matches later.

Federer was the world No. 1 in 2004 and 2005, but in 2011, finds himself the world No. 3, playing against world No. 1—who happens to be Rafael Nadal.

What matches, indeed, these should prove to be.

Of course, we will be joined by a relative warm-up in the morning, with Novak Djokovic going up against Mardy Fish for a spot in the final; that too, will be intriguing, but nothing till quite have the mystic of Federer and Nadal.

Tonight, we will dine in praise of this sport.