The debate about who is the ‘greatest ever’ tennis player will no doubt fill column inches for as long as fuzzy yellow balls are hit from one side of a net to the other.
After Rafael Nadal had beaten one of the chief contenders for the ‘greatest ever’ accolade, Roger Federer, for the 22nd time in 32 meetings, he was asked about his own place in the record-books. His reply was evasive:
“Today the question is not about me or Roger, will be more about Rod Laver or Roger. And talking about my career, I am 27. I did more than what I ever dreamed. I hope to keep having chances to keep winning, and hopefully when I finish my career, we’ll see where I am in the history of tennis.”
But should Nadal win this particular final, the last tour match of 2013, he would do his own case no harm at all. For as well as owning a big lead over Federer in their head-to-head, trailing his Swiss rival by just four Grand Slams, and leading all the competition by a mile in Masters titles, Nadal was aiming to win the only significant title in tennis that he had not won. No other active player—Federer included—had won every Grand Slam, Olympic gold, the Davis Cup and the season-ending trophy.
Nadal’s 2013 credentials suggested this could well be his time, too. Since his return from injury at the start of February, he had won 10 titles with a tour-leading 75-6 win-loss record, including 36-3 on hard courts.
But while the world No1 may have despatched Federer in the semis, he still had the other form player of the year to beat, world No2—and world No1 for most of 2013—the defending champion Novak Djokovic.
And although Nadal’s rivalry with Federer has always been the one to capture the imagination, the one between Nadal and Djokovic has grown into a bigger and equally compelling one. This was their 39th meeting, their 19th in a final and their sixth of the year, and they had split the honours, on both clay and hard courts, three to two in Nadal’s favour.
And Djokovic was increasingly making his own mark in the record books—not least his third consecutive Australian Open title this year. His form through this autumn was unmatched, as back-to-back titles in Beijing, Shanghai and Paris, along with Davis Cup plus four straight victories in London, took him to 21 consecutive wins.
Only one man had equalled such a streak this year and that, of course, was Nadal: The Spaniard had put together a 22-match streak not once but twice, the first on clay, the second on hard courts.
But momentum is a powerful force, as is confidence, and Djokovic had plenty of both:
“After the US Open final, I haven’t lost a match. I’m trying to take a lot of positive energy out of this confidence and out of this run. I won against [Nadal] in the finals of Beijing in straight sets and I played a great match. I liked the way I improved in our matches. I like that I changed a few things that allowed me to win against him. That’s something that I will definitely try to use tomorrow.
“He has immensely improved on hard court…this is probably his least preferable…but not this year. This year he has had incredible success. He’s more aggressive, he’s using his serve better.
“Of course, no clear favourites in the final. It’s always expected that we go the distance. Let the better win.”
As the Twitter hash-tag for this tournament so rightly described it: they indeed were set for the #FinalShowdown.
In the first three games, it was all Djokovic as the errors sprayed from Nadal—and the Spaniard only just survived in the fourth game after two double faults brought up break point. Having held, it seemed to spur Nadal into action, he bristled in his old familiar way, bustling around the back of the court as Djokovic—the calm man out there—prepared to serve. It worked, too, and Nadal broke back on the third break point.
But a couple of holds later and Nadal again—very uncharacteristically—twice double faulted. He tried attacking the net, but was constantly out-manoeuvred, Djokovic passed him, and the Spaniard pummelled his legs with his fist in fury. Not that it helped one iota: Djokovic served out the set, 6-3, in around 40 minutes.
The second set saw more of the same. Djokovic stretched himself out, and crouched deep—almost bent in half—ready to pounce on the Nadal serve. It took him a couple of games, but sure enough, Nadal was forced into more errors, fought off two break points, but could not fight off a third. Djokovic broke and held to love, 3-1.
It was, indeed, constantly Nadal who came under pressure, but he ran and chased and sweated profusely in his attempt to close the gap. He seemed to be missing a step, grimaced more than once—whether in pain or frustration was not clear—and faced two more break points in the eighth game.
He survived, as only Nadal seems able to do, and survived another at 4-5—Championship point for Djokovic. Nadal made three straight points to hold and had the crowd on its feet as he pulled back from 0-30 to 30-30 on the Serb’s serve. Djokovic brought up another Championship point, and again was thwarted by Nadal, but at the third attempt—earned with an ace—he seized the game, the set and the title, 6-4, his third year-end trophy and his second in a succession.
It is hard to know what Nadal could have done different, except perhaps headed for the net more often, but even there, Djokovic reigned supreme, winning an impressive 14 points from 19.
Nadal made no excuses, largely blaming his poor serving for his dilemma: “If I can say about one thing that makes the difference in today’s match, was the serve, that I didn’t serve well, he served well. So in this kind of court, first shot is very important, and he did that first shot much better than me. For the rest I felt that when I was playing, I was not far away off his level.
“I am not very disappointed. I know that I was not the favourite for the match, even if I tried with the right attitude, in my opinion, fighting for every moment, trying to be positive in every moment, so only thing that I can say is congratulate the opponent.”
And so Djokovic closes the gap in this remarkable rivalry to just five, and strengthened his own cause in the conversation about some of the greatest ever. He has some way to go, but now heads home to try and lead Serbia to a second Davis Cup. Then it’s off to Australia to see if he can make it five in a row.
And there seem to be fewer men around who can stop him—except perhaps Nadal when the clay arrives again.