Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal, Roland Garros No. 5

All the world is in uproar, and for no bad reason at all. Roger Federer faces Rafael Nadal in yet another grand slam final.

This time, it is familiar territory: the French Open, the scene of so many of their former battles, and indeed the scene of their first-ever meeting at a grand slam.

For purists of Roger-Rafa, there could hardly be a more fitting locus for the 25th meeting between the two.

More so, because the last time these two met in a title match at this very highest level it was in the new world, and in the newer territory towards which their rivalry had brought them by 2009, at the Australian Open.

Well, yes, Wimbledon will always trump the French Open for Federer and Nadal, for being the place where their very greatest matches were ever played. Which would leave, in fact, Paris wanting for its own share of the epic.

The amazing thing is, Roland Garros will be, even had they not made it both the final, the grand slam they have met most often in. Four times it would have been, but five it will be, tomorrow.

It will be their fourth meeting in the final, and in that knowledge there is perhaps a deceptive sense that it will mark a return to normality, a decisive re-assertion of that glorious, harmonious parity for which Federer and Nadal had been known: Rafa takes the French, and Roger, a month later, Wimbledon.

Only that there has been some equally decisive evidence in the last three years that such 'normality' has perhaps been irretrievably lost.

2009 and 2010 saw Federer and Nadal trade French-Wimbledon doubles, while this year, of course, we have witnessed the much anticipated Final Struggle, between that great challenger, Novak Djokovic, and these said great kings.

The whirlwind conjured by Djokovic's compelling and seemingly imponderable 43-match winning streak seems to have stirred up something odd, too, in the relationship between Roger and Rafa (in the tennis sense, only).

For one thing, Roger is now a rather distant two places behind Rafa, and for that, has found in himself something of the old. Before we get to that, however, it is worth saying about Nadal, likewise, that he has found something of the old, too.

He has learned a new role, as a matured, established world No. 1, and the burdens that are attendant to it.

Yes, some aspect of mental fatigue, inevitable after seven years of tip-top competition is involved, but nonetheless the pressure of being the best player in the world is real, too, whether one may totally buy into Nadal's rather effective self-effacing philosophy of humility.

It has showed in this year's Roland Garros. The losses to Djokovic affected him, no doubt, but they can't have done so to the extent that he was virtually absent for the first four rounds, by his alien standards at least. He is a warier, more cautious, and more vulnerable Nadal.

His semifinal against Murray evidenced more of this even in this late stage of a slam: thrice he led by a break in the second set, only to be broken back right away.

There was an anxiety, stress, uncertainty in those moments that, notwithstanding Murray's persistence, would not have plagued the Nadal of years past.

Murray and Djokovic have been the players of this clay season who have posed the greatest threats to him, and Nadal would certainly have rejoiced at the defeat of Djokovic last night.

It ended a career-best run, and the finest start to a season seen for many, many years; but ought he to be so complacent about his victor?

A fifth meeting beckons for Federer with Nadal, although history will not be in the favour of the former.

Their last, no doubt, must have seemed like the sealing of a coffin - so deadly and lethal was Nadal in that 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 victory three years ago. But that was then, and this is now. Is Federer ready to aright this rankling wrong?

The semifinal win over Djokovic revealed the Federer of old. Of that, there is no dispute. There was that old looseness, that carefree, unburdened ball-striking which the factors of age, perceived decline, and rising rivals had contained.

In that ever-so-glorious win, which for itself alone must be ranked as one of Federer's finest ever, Roger Federer was back again.

It was there yesterday; whether it will be there again tomorrow, one has yet to see. That monumental conundrum that is Rafael Nadal now stands, indomitable on this surface, and at this venue.

But if we are to judge from the most recent manifestations of Federer and Nadal, the final tomorrow promises to be the most intriguing between the two yet.

For one thing, Federer doesn't come in seeking a French Open title. He already has one. Yes, Nadal has five, and while he isn't apparently overly concerned to win a Borg-equalling sixth, which he claims would give no more validation to himself, having won so many times, Federer wouldn't probably be nearly as concerned about winning a second.

A second would be great, but a sixth for Nadal the greater. A loss to Nadal, another at Roland Garros, provided he managed a set at least, would merely pave the way for the restoration of this old power hierarchy.

It would keep Nadal at No. 1, too, for good measure. The fact is, Federer is expected to lose against Nadal here, and he would know it.

History and expectation, then, may be the most decisive factors in the match tomorrow. They would prove the intangibles that ought to revolutionise, as it has many times before, this classic of our time, the Federer-Nadal rivalry.

Federer is resurgent and desirous; Nadal, in whose veins flow ichor, has had a taste of mortality. It used to be the other way round, but the world is no longer as it once was. Federer-Nadal is no longer as it once was, however much that topspin forehand to one-handed backhand combo might never change.

Greater forces are at work in great matches, and magic most often manifests in these rare contests. Federer has the talent to solve almost all the problems in tennis, and Nadal, the resilience to upend almost any assault.

For the first time in five meetings in Paris, these two meet, replete with these powers of theirs. A match in parity is often a match to behold with feasting eyes.