Did anyone notice something strange when they were watching Roger Federer take on Rafael Nadal in the French Open Final on Sunday last? Did anything strike you as unusual? No? It may have just been me then who found themselves rather surprised at the sight of Federer actually playing well against his Spanish nemesis.
You see he never usually does, despite what easily excited journalists who like to wax lyrical about the Wimbledon 2008 final would have you believe. Something happens to the Swiss man when he faces off against Nadal. It might be that, like in the Australian Open final in 2009, his serve completely deserts him. Or that, as we saw during the interminably long 2008 Wimbledon final, that he plays utterly passively and within himself. Or, in the worst case scenario, he may completely disintegrate and fail to keep the ball anywhere in the court, as with the French Open final in 2008. For a man who so effortlessly dominated tennis between 2004 and 2007, watching him play Nadal is never a pretty sight.
The reasons for Federer's discomfort are not terribly complicated. For a man blessed with remarkable skill and poise, he is uniquely ill-suited to playing against Nadal. Tennis is all about match-ups and Federer matches up pretty well to everyone except the current world no. 1. Nadal plays left-handed (despite actually being right-handed) and that heavy forehand with ample spin is aimed directly at Federer's single-handed backhand.
The sight of Federer unleashing a glancing backhand winner down the line is a rare thing of beauty but seeing that same backhand demolished by a sledgehammer of a forehand from Nadal is both more frequent and less agreeable. Other players, like Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic with their double-handed backhands, do not face this problem. Federer, on the other hand, is virtually helpless as the spin from Nadal's shots leaves him desperately trying to return a ball that has bounced nearly above his head, and all with just one hand.
The timing required is remarkable and almost impossible to maintain. That Nadal possesses the discipline required to target Federer's backhand on almost every stroke is certainly admirable but it does little to add to the spectacle of proceedings. Nadal is also a hugely defensive player. He can retrieve shots that most players fail even to move for. For Federer this is not a good thing. Having his shots returned, even when they fall in advantageous positions on the court for him, is mentally draining.
Constantly having to hit one more shot, one more winner is exhausting and with time, as the match goes on, errors begin to creep in. The shot almost needs to be perfect to finish off Nadal but when one tries to go beyond good, perfect is often never reached and you find yourself at mediocre instead. In tennis, this means you start going for too much and you start hitting out.
That's another thing, Federer's unforced error count usually goes through the roof when he faces Nadal. In short, Federer usually plays badly when he faces Nadal because he feels he has to be perfect and being perfect is impossible. That's the pressure Nadal puts on you and Federer does not handle it well.
But then Sunday came and despite all assumptions, Federer got off to a flyer. He was, to put it bluntly, hitting Nadal off the court. It was mesmerising at times. Federer's backhand was solid and he used it to manipulate the point onto his forehand which more often than not resulted in him blasting a winner.
He was 5-2 up in the first set. All those years of hurt seemed like they might fade away. But then things changed, suddenly and irrevocably. He had put off the pressure for as long as he could, but Federer couldn't hide from it anymore and Nadal reeled off five straight games to clinch the set. To Federer's credit he kept the rest of the match tight, when we might have expected him to fade away as he had done in the past.
So is Federer, despite his advancing years, finally finding a way to deal with the Nadal problem? He lost on Sunday but it was, after-all, on the surface where Nadal has been virtually unbeatable and it was close, closer even than the scoreline suggests.
Despite Federer's remarkable success it is perhaps unfortunate for him that he finds himself playing at the same time as a player who almost seems to have been designed to beat him, a man whose every strength seems targeted at his few weaknesses. Perhaps, should he manage it before he retires, overcoming such a chilling opponent as this will be the most significant achievement in Roger Federer's remarkable career. Wimbledon is the next step. If the two meet again there, let's hope it's the Federer we saw on Sunday and that the contest is as equally promising.