When Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal tangle in the men’s singles final at Roland Garros, it will mark their fifth career meeting at the French Championships and their fourth final. Federer has, of course, never beaten Nadal on the Roland Garros clay – and in their last final on the Parisian clay back in 2008 – and was hardly competitive.
Rene Stauffer, the author of the definitive biography of Federer called ROGER FEDERER, QUEST FOR PERFECTION ($19.95, New Chapter Press, www.RogerFedererBook.com), describes each encounter between the two titans at Roland Garros in these excerpts below.
2005 Semifinals – Nadal def. Federer 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
Federer may have arrived in Paris with a season’s record of 41-2 but he expressed caution before his seventh French Open. “The first rounds here are always treacherous,” he said in a modest tone that was sometimes missing from previous years. “I’m not thinking about winning this tournament.” He arrived in Paris directly from Portugal and had the privilege of being able to practice every day on the Centre Court at Roland Garros—the Philippe Chatrier Court—where he suffered many of his most devastating losses as a professional. Federer’s excellent pre-event preparation and the tutoring from the now 60-year-old Tony Roche paid off. He won the first five matches of the tournament without dropping a set to reach the semifinals for the first time in his career. “It’s almost going a bit too quickly for me,” he said of his relatively easy jaunt to the semifinals.
However, waiting for Federer in the semifinals was none other than Nadal—whom he faced for the first time on a clay court. The young Spaniard was full of self-confidence and entered the match with a 22-match win streak. Due to a rain delay, as well the five-set match between Argentinean Mariano Puerta and Russian Nikolay Davydenko in the other men’s semifinal, Federer and Nadal did not take the court until 6:20 pm local time in Paris. Federer struggled from the start and was troubled—particularly off the forehand—by Nadal’s extreme topspin. After losing four of the first five games, Federer surrendered the first set 6-3—his first lost set of the tournament—as he had his serve broken an incredible four times. He managed to win the second set 6-4, but remained unusually nervous and committed nearly twice as many mistakes as Nadal in the third set. Nadal led 4-2, before Federer broke back to square the set. After Nadal held in the ninth game of the third set, he clinched the third set—and a two-sets-to-one lead—with a cross-court running forehand winner. Darkness started to fall in Paris and Federer was irritated. He seemed to be in a rush and requested the match be suspended due to darkness. The chair umpire did not allow it. Federer was flustered and Nadal took control of the match as he broke Federer’s serve in the eighth game to take a 5-3 lead and closed out the 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 victory one game later. “I started the match off badly and ended it badly,” Federer summarized. “I played well in between but all in all, that was not enough.”
Like at the Australian Open when Federer was defeated by Safin in the wee hours of the morning of Safin’s 25th birthday, Federer was again a birthday victim at a Grand Slam event. This Friday—June 3rd—was the 19th birthday of Nadal—and like Safin—he would go on to win the tournament. In an exciting final between two left-handed players, Nadal defeated Puerta, who, as it turned out months later, tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs and was suspended from professional tennis.
The more time Federer pondered the loss to Nadal, the more positives he drew from it. He proved to himself and others that he had what it takes to win the French Open, despite what he thought was his worst performance in the later stages of a Grand Slam tournament. He was convinced that this loss to Nadal would be a learning experience. He now believed he could win the French Open and achieve the rare career Grand Slam. Another positive to temper his mood was the fact that the French public took a liking to him and rallied behind him during his matches, most notably against Nadal. “It was fantastic how they supported me,” he said. “It was almost like a victory for me because it’s not easy to win the crowd in Paris.”
2006 Final – Nadal def. Federer 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (4)
At Roland Garros, Federer effortlessly reached the semifinals—losing only one set in the process to Nicolas Massu of Chile in the third round. David Nalbandian, Federer’s former nemesis, waited in the semifinals and after only 39 minutes of play, the Argentine surprisingly lead 6-4, 3-0. Nalbandian, however, was troubled by a stomach injury and as the match progressed, it became too much to bear. With the score knotted at one set a piece and Federer leading 5-2 in the third set, Nalbandian was forced to retire from the match.
It seemed as though 2006 was Federer’s year. He was one match away from the “Roger Slam” but once again, Nadal waited in the final. The Spaniard entered the final having won his last 59 matches on clay courts—his first-round win over Sweden’s Robin Soderling broke the all-time clay court streak of 53 matches set by Guillermo Vilas in 1977.
Federer, however, was convinced he could beat him. He and Tony Roche analyzed the left-hander’s game and pondered his tactics. In contrast to right-handed players, Nadal had a completely different range distribution. He covered his left half of the court much better than most players and he was able to more consistently work on Federer’s weaker backhand side with his forehand.
The final was one of the most highly-anticipated matches in memory. Black market prices for the final reached four digit figures in euros. The media outdid itself with previews and headlines—“Prince against the Pirate” ran the headlines of the British Independent on Sunday. Former French heavyweight boxing champion Jean-Claude Bouttier said the final reminded him of one of the greatest fights in boxing history. “A stylist is meeting a puncher at this match,” he said. “Nadal is Marvin Hagler. Federer is Sugar Ray Leonard.”
The match began fantastically for Federer. Carried by a wave of sympathy from the spectators accorded the No. 1-seeded “underdog,” he won the first set 6-1 on the hot afternoon with temperatures hovering near 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The turning point in the match, however, came quickly and brutally. At 0-1 in the second set and after leading 40-0 on his serve, Federer missed an easy volley at the net to lose his serve and go down an early break in the second set. His tremendous momentum was lost. Months later, Federer said that this moment “broke his neck.” While Federer fell apart, Nadal got his second wind and rallied for the 1-6, 6-1, 6-4, 7-6 (4) victory. It was Federer’s first loss in a Grand Slam final.
Even months later, Federer could not say exactly what happened during the three-hour final. “I wasn’t nervous,” he said. “To the contrary, I was even astonished at how cool I was. The fact that I wasn’t able to pull it off had to do with Nadal. He was impressive coming back after the first set.” Was there something he would do differently if he could play this final again? “Yes. I would have changed my game after the first set even though I was winning,” he said. “I should have stood farther up, played more aggressively and I needed to try to put more pressure on him.”
2007 Final – Nadal def. Federer 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4
At Roland Garros, Federer raised the hopes of his many fans as he reached the final for a second straight year. There Nadal awaited once again. Paris isn’t like Hamburg or Wimbledon. The clay courts in the Bois de Boulogne are a fortress for the Spaniard—and he would not give it up. Federer started the final off strong, but couldn’t convert on any of his 10 break point opportunities and lost the first set 6-3. Federer then evened the match, winning the second set, but Nadal proved to be too strong and began to pull away.
With plenty of confidence, Nadal finished the 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory and grabbed another clay-court title to go with his victories earlier in the year in Monte Carlo, Barcelona and Rome.
“Spin it any way you want—I’m disappointed to have lost. I couldn’t care less how I played the last 10 months or the last 10 years. At the end of the day, I wanted to win that match,” said a somber Federer in the post-match press conference. “I couldn’t do it. It’s a shame. But life goes on…”
2008 Final – Nadal def. Federer 6-1, 6-3, 6-0
In April, one year after the split with his coach Tony Roche, he expanded his team by hiring the former Spanish clay court specialist Jose Higueras, who worked and lived in the United States and helped guide Michael Chang and Jim Courier to French Open titles. The collaboration lasted only until the end of the year. Except for a smaller ATP clay-court tournament in Estoril, Portugal, where his final-round opponent Nikolay Davydenko retired with an injury, Federer left every tournament he played a loser. He lost to players who he often used to beat: Mardy Fish in Indian Wells, Andy Roddick in Miami and Radek Stepanek in Rome. In cases where he reached the finals, there was always one guy standing in his way: Rafael Nadal. Federer lost to the Spaniard in Monte Carlo, Hamburg and for the third time in a row, in the French Open finals.
The French Open loss was one of the most sensational losses of his career. He lost eight of his eleven service games and was defeated in one hour, 48 minutes by a 6-1, 6-3, 6-0 margin. The loss was the most decisive in a French Open men’s final since 1977. The questions quickly arose whether Federer could recover from this psychological beat-down in time to defend his Wimbledon title.