Roger Federer will go down in tennis history as the game’s most artful practitioner and, in the view of many, its greatest player.
But Federer will step away from the game, at some point in the not-too-distant future, never having solved the impossible puzzle that is Rafael Nadal on the clay courts of Roland Garros.
In the most anticipated tennis match in years, Nadal outplayed Federer in every facet of the game Friday on Court Philippe Chatrier, where the Spaniard muscled, ran, retrieved and blasted his way to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory that sends him on to Sunday’s final and a chance to extend his record 11 French Open championships.
The conditions were the trickiest they’ve had to contend with over the course of their 39-match rivalry. Rafael Nadal traded in a baggy top and pirate pants for a form-fitting shirt and short shorts. Roger Federer switched out Nike’s swoosh for Uniqlo’s bilingual box. Fans inside Court Phillipe Chatrier sat on new, beige seats; fans at home recorded this match on DVR instead of VHS.
Otherwise, nothing changed whatsoever since the first time Roger and Rafa met in the French Open semifinals, 14 years ago.
He’ll face the winner of the semifinal between world No. 1 Novak Djokovic and fourth-ranked Dominic Thiem, which was suspended by the weather until Saturday morning. Thiem holds a 6-2, 3-6, 3-1 lead.
With the victory, under fiendishly windy conditions, Nadal snapped a five-match losing streak against Federer, improving his career record against the Swiss to 24-15.
Nadal also pulled within one victory of what would be his 18th major, plausible striking distance from Federer’s record 20.
He improved his record at the French Open to a staggering 92-2.
And he did it against an opponent who played quite well yet never managed to take charge of the contest on the tricky clay of Court Philippe Chatrier, which Nadal has turned into his personal fiefdom these last 14 years.
Friday’s match was the 39th between the two since they first met, in 2004. Their first meeting at the French Open, also a semifinal, followed in 2005.
But again on Friday, as has been the case all five previous times they had met on the Roland Garros clay, Nadal was superior in every way.
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