Wimbledon 2009 started today, without the reigning Men's Singles champion and World No.1 Rafa Nadal. Roger Federer must have done very well to conceal the broadest of grins when he heard the news of his great adversary's absence from the All England Club on Friday evening.
Federer vs Nadal is the greatest rivalry in modern sport. Singles tennis is an almost unparalleled medium for the sporting duel. Sport has always been written about in terms of battle, and in sport, as in the military arena, the one-on-one duel is the ultimate contest. But in golf, you play the course; in darts, you play the board. In singles tennis, you play your opponent. Every stroke one hits is returned with added bite by the other, as punches traded. Every point ends in one player winning and one losing.
Federer vs Nadal is the greatest sporting spectacle of the twenty-first century. Rivalry, as is often the case, has pushed the Swiss and the Spaniard to even greater levels of excellence. Their final at Wimbledon last year was the best sporting contest I've ever seen. Nadal shot into a two-set lead with an incredible display of baseline hitting. Then the rain came down, adding to the drama further, before Federer summoned up all the mental strength he had to claim the third-set tiebreak. It got even better in the fourth-set 'breaker, consistently scintillating levels of tennis encapsulated by the two bravest, most brilliant, passing shots I've seen. If you can't remember them, take a look here. http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/tennis/7494114.stm At 7-7, Nadal somehow reaches a Federer approach shot to fire a forehand down the line past the Swiss' despairing lunge. At 8-7, Federer hits one of those one-handed backhands that only Federer can hit, outside the tramline as the ball flies past Rafa at the net to drop within inches of the baseline, one of numerous winners the defending champion hit when Championship point down. The hands raised and fists pumped you can see from the crowd don't appear to be any display of partisanship, but rather spontaneous acclamations of the brilliance they're witnessing. Darkness had long began to descend when Federer netted a forehand to give Nadal a 9-7 5th set victory at 9.15pm. This was their apotheosis.
And we wonder if it will ever be as good again. Nadal, who has only just turned 23, has had strapping on his knees for years, the physical nature of his game, which puts enormous pressure on his joints, causing many to question whether he can play on beyond 25. He is a Terry Butcher kind of a tennis player - when he retires from a match, or pulls out of a tournament, let alone Wimbledon, he's not 'a little bit sore', he's really hurt. Federer, meanwhile, is approaching his 28th birthday, in a sport where playing long past 30 is rare. His best days are behind him.
Lessons from the enthralling rivalry between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe, with whom Federer and Nadal share strong parallels, are also ominous. Borg was the elegant and unflappable champion, McEnroe the brash young pretender who eventually usurped his adversary at the top of the men's game. Like Nadal, McEnroe had to complete his apprenticeship at Wimbledon before he won it, losing an epic five-set final in 1980, before ending Borg's quest for his sixth straight title the following year. Borg was of course back at Wimbledon last year to see Nadal thwart Federer as he aimed for six in a row. Like their twenty-first century successors, Borg and McEnroe's careers didn't peak at quite the same time. Borg was only three years older but, after being defeated by McEnroe in the 1981 US Open final, he, for want of a better term, lost it and retired from the game, aged 26. Although McEnroe enjoyed a fierce rivalry with Jimmy Connors in the 1980s, it never reached the same level as his encounters with Borg.
The foolish began to write that Federer's defeat a year ago was the beginning of the end for the Swiss. He bounced back to win the US Open two months later. But pictures of Federer in floods of tears after Nadal, by then the World No.1, beat him at the Australian Open this January painted thousands of words. Federer was a broken man. He bore the look of a man who knew that whatever he came up with, the relentless Nadal would always have an answer.
Both Federer and Nadal have been rightly heralded for their sporting behaviour on and off the court. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matthew_syed/article6465803.ece) But behind that ice cool demeanour, make no mistake, Roger hates Rafa. He must do. It is natural to hate a man who has taken what was yours, as Nadal did with Wimbledon and the World No.1 crown. There must be a certain anger that comes with the divine elegance of one's strokeplay being beaten by the brutish clubbing of an opponent. Nadal will never match Federer in terms of natural brilliance on a court, and yet, a seemingly superior competitor, more consistent and better mentally, he leads the Swiss 13-6 head-to-head. Most fundamentally, these guys live to win, and the opponent you just can't beat must make your blood boil. Watching Roger cry at the Australian Open was embarassing enough to watch: Federer must hate to be reminded of it. But I think watching Nadal walk out onto the Centre Court as the reigning champion on the first Monday of Wimbledon would have made him feel even worse. The greatest relief on Friday night, when he heard the news, might just have been that Roger was able to open the tournament, as he has done now for six years in a row, this lunchtime. Adorned in his latest fashion statement of course.
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The other man who has most to gain from Rafa Nadal's withdrawal from this year's Championships is British No.1, World No.3, Andy Murray. The young Scot has matured in front of our eyes in recent years, from petulant teenager to level-headed contender. He looks infinitely more capable of dealing with the inevitable pressure from the British public than Tim Henman ever did. Had they both got through, he would have been scheduled to play Rafa Nadal, who taught him a lesson in the quarter-finals 12 months ago, in the semi-final. Without him, the route to a final with Federer (chickens very hastily counted) - a rematch of last year's US Open decider - looks clear. Murray's accelerated away from Novak Djokovic at World No.3 in 2009, but, with Nadal absent, must make the most of his opportunity to join the very top table, and push on from being the third wheel in the date everyone wants to see.
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