Sports fans have a way of looking back and recalling the good old days.
In 2006, 2007, and 2008, Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal met for three successive championship finals at Wimbledon. Each of those matches was more closely fought than the previous one, with the 2008 showdown often being heralded as the greatest match ever played.
For nearly a decade since that last encounter, tennis fans, analysts, and surely the players themselves, have all wondered if a reunion on Centre Court is too much to hope for.
This year, 11 years after that first final, when Federer was the established ruler of the grass courts and Nadal his presumptuous challenger, the old rivals have been drawn to meet again on the afternoon of July 16, to play for this year’s gentlemen’s singles trophy.
While both Federer and Nadal would be the first to remind everyone that there’s a long way to go before that actually happens, the fact that it is even a possibility proves what we have suspected all year. 2017 is a year of miracles in tennis. For it has seen a remarkable, unexpected, and heartwarming double comeback by two of the world’s greatest tennis players ever.
Both Federer and Nadal battled injuries last year, missing much of the season, and watching helplessly as their rankings plummeted outside the top 10. When the new season began at the start of this year, the era of Rafa and Roger appeared to have already faded, while that of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray seemed to be firmly in the ascendance.
Add to that mix the Grand Slam victories of Stan Wawrinka, and the brigade of younger, fitter players like Alexander Zverev, Milos Raonic, Dominic Thiem, and Nick Kyrigos, and you could be forgiven for wishing you’d had had a chance to at least say a proper goodbye to the two veterans who were suddenly nowhere on the scene.
Back in the Roger and Rafa era
Then, suddenly, we were in Australia, and the unthinkable happened. When 35-year-old Federer and 31-year-old Nadal reached the “dream final” in January, it was surreal. Truth be told, it felt like a bit of a fluke. Only, it wasn’t.
Since that match, which Federer won, the two men have ruled the tennis world. The Swiss tore through the first three months of the year, wining 19 of his 20 matches, following up the Australian Open win with two ATP Masters Series titles on the hard courts of Indian Wells and Miami. In both events, he defeated his old nemesis, Nadal, who had once seemed invincible to him.
The Spaniard, however, was not having a bad year himself. Runner-up in Melbourne and Miami, Rafa pretty much rolled through his beloved clay courts, winning in Monte Carlo, Barcelona, and Madrid, before crowning his achievements at the French Open.
If Federer added to his record of Grand Slam titles by winning number 18, then Nadal became the first man to win a major 10 times. Both Nadal and Federer have climbed back in the rankings to arrive at an impressive number two and five respectively. And, naturally, these two are leading the ATP Race to the year-ending championships in London.
Both men have had phenomenal seasons by any measure. But it is their age and the injuries they suffered last year that make their joint comebacks so astounding. Suddenly, we are back in the Rafa and Roger era. How did this happen?
Some of it can be attributed to a mystifying decline by Djokovic, whose slide began exactly a year ago, when he lost to Sam Querrey in the third round of Wimbledon. The defeat broke his long Grand Slam streak (he held all four major titles simultaneously until then), a blow from which he never seemed to fully recover.
For a while it looked like Murray would step into his shoes as he went on to win Wimbledon and then take over the No 1 ranking. However, the Scot failed to keep up the momentum, losing to Kei Nishikori in the US Open quarter-final* and bowing out early, like Djokovic, in Melbourne. Both of them then went on to withdraw from Miami with elbow injuries, leaving the field wide open for others.
One might have expected the young players to take advantage of this opportunity and break through. And some of them have come close. But, in the end, it was two sentimental favorites who decided to show the tennis world that they were not quite ready to retire yet.
Federer and Nadal began the year with little to lose. Finally healthy, and with relatively few points to defend compared with other years, they tried to make adjustments to their games to suit their older bodies. Nadal got himself a new coach, Carlos Moya. Federer got himself a bigger racquet and a new, flat backhand. The rest, as they, say is history.
One more miracle?
And so here we are at Wimbledon once again, actually considering the mouthwatering prospect of a 10th Grand Slam final meeting between them. They are in form and have the best records and most titles this year. Fans – even British ones – are likely to root for them. But of course, we can’t jump the gun quite yet. For both of these players to reach the final, it might just take one more miracle.
While Federer won last week’s warm up event in Halle, beating in-form 20-year-old Alexander Zverev, proving once again just how hard it is to beat him on grass, Nadal’s preparation has been less stellar.
As a precaution against wearing themselves out, both Federer and Nadal have taken time off this year. Federer decided to miss the clay court season altogether, and Nadal chose to sit out the warm up tournaments on grass. As a result, the Spaniard comes to England with little match practice on what is his least favorite surface. In fact, he has lost to players outside the top 100 in his last four appearances at Wimbledon. What’s more, at an exhibition match played last week, he lost in straight sets to Tomas Berdych.
None of this bodes well for him going into the first few rounds when he is most vulnerable. It will be interesting to watch how he does in these early matches, on the slippery grass and low bounce that are not well suited for his fragile knees. If – and it’s a big if – he does manage to get through the first week, it will be a different, more confident and comfortable Nadal in the latter rounds, as he pursues his third title here as well as the No 1 ranking.
There should be fewer concerns for Federer, although some of his prospective matches look interesting. Seeded third, Federer is the bookmakers’ favorite to become the oldest man to win Wimbledon. He plays the tricky Dolgopolov in round one, but should get through that match fairly easily.
He could play Bernard Tomic in round three and a resurgent Grigor Dimitrov in round four, before arriving at a quarter-final matchup against either Zverev or the man who beat him last year, Milos Raonic. If he gets past all these players, he is seeded to meet Djokovic in the semi-final, but that will only happen if the Serb makes it past his own much tougher draw.
Going by this year’s form, confidence, and grass-court skills, Federer is a very strong favorite to win a record eighth title here. That, in itself, a month before he turns 36, is a bit of a miracle.
Like the bounce on the slick grass courts, the results at Wimbledon can be quite unpredictable. As we wait to see how it all unfolds, and hear of the stories that are sure to light up this historic, charming tournament in the coming days, let’s not forget that tennis in 2017 has already brought us a double fairytale. The first slam of the year belonged to Federer. The second one belonged to Nadal.
Will the third also belong to one of them? It seems fitting, considering all that they have gone through together over the years, that their stories be intertwined at Wimbledon. And if the miracles they have wrought in their careers have taught us one thing, it’s to never dismiss any possibility – not even that of another dream final.
Oindrila Mukherjee tweets here.
*Correction and clarification: A version of this article mistakenly stated that Andy Murray lost to Stan Wawrinka in the US Open final in 2016. The mistake has been rectified.
