Federer Still On Course For Record

Yesterday’s Australian Open final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer might not have reached the dizzying heights of last July’s Wimbledon epic, but these two phenomenal players still served up another compulsive episode in their generation-defining rivalry.

With the World No.1 further cementing his position atop the ATP rankings, Federer’s pursuit of a record-equalling 14th Grand Slam title goes on. It is a goal which many are now questioning: he no longer reigns on grass, and now Nadal has overcome his previous fallibility in the hard court opens.

But it would take a brave man to write off Federer’s chances of matching Pete Sampras in 2009 despite the Majorcan’s recent dominance. After pushing Nadal to four sets at Roland Garros in the 2006 and 2007 finals, Federer regressed last year taking a measly four games as Nadal bullied him into submission within 108 minutes. On current form it is hard to imagine anything other than a fifth straight Paris title for Nadal, but the prospect of the Spaniard achieving the first calendar Grand Slam since Rod Laver in 1969 is remote.

Federer has come closest to reaching that particular feat in recent years. Only Nadal’s mastery on clay prevented the Swiss from completing the set in 2006 and 2007 whereas Sampras never won more than two Grand Slams in a calendar year. Federer’s chances remain highest at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadow where the pool of potential winners, and threats to Nadal, runs deeper – Fernando Verdasco pushed his compatriot to the Australian Open’s longest ever match in last Friday’s semi-final; Novak Djokovic has beaten Nadal four times in North American Masters Series events in the last two years; and Andy Murray earned his first win over Nadal in last year’s US Open semi-final.

As Federer proved when sweeping aside the young Scot in New York; if someone else can take care of Nadal at the big events, he can take care of the rest.