Time is now for Rafa
By: Dan Arkans

 At first, it was difficult for me to accept.

How could this young hotshot with the embarrassing outfits, who seemingly takes five minutes between each serve, be placed in the same breath of the incomparable Roger Federer, the greatest tennis player in the history of the game?

 That’s what media outlets and tennis fans were doing back before his run to last year’s Wimbledon finals even took place. And I just couldn’t believe it.

 Federer, who has shown the ability to hit every shot from any position on the court, had no equal.

 Didn’t he? Doesn’t he?
Finally, it would seem he does.
At first, I thought the Federer/Nadal rivalry was created by the media based on a clay-court head-to-head record and when the two met their best tennis was not produced.
The French Open final this year was filled with missed chances and errors on a surface, which rewards not making mistakes.

 I came away with this from that French final: Nadal’s got more fight than anyone on tour and makes Federer extremely uncomfortable, something no other player has been able to do for the last five years.
Entering the Wimbledon final, I thought Nadal would win. With each round I was buying into him some more. Playing seven consecutive days, dealing with the insanity of Robin Soderling, coming from two sets down against a thorn in his side, Mikhail Youzhny, made a believer out of me .

The final needed to bring out the absolute best tennis in both Federer and Nadal, it needed to be a classic and it needed drama. It was all of that and much, much more.
That display of tennis was more like an old-time heavyweight fight that put the sport on top of the national sports landscape, even if just for a day or two. The first three sets were heart-pounding, sitting-on-the-edge of your seat theatre.

Federer lost his way and composure a bit in the fourth set. Nadal had a visit from the trainer before the fifth set, but his movement and stamina did not appear to be affected in the decisive set.
Nadal will be haunted by four break points in two Federer service games where he made two errors, while the serve of the world’s No. 1 took care of the rest.

 Once the opportunities were gone, Federer stepped on the gas and away he went to his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title.

The match was instantly compared to John McEnroe/Bjorn Borg’s 1980 thriller and was the most exciting Wimbledon final since then, but it cannot stop there. The Federer/Nadal rivalry is already being called one of the greats of all-time and possibly the one that saved tennis in this country, but it’s not there yet.
While the casual tennis fan may think every final is Federer/Nadal, it is not. Nadal has never made it past the quarterfinals of a grand slam on a hard court. So, are hard courts Nadal’s kryptonite, much like clay was once to Federer?

Actually, Nadal has had success on hard courts, winning in Miami last year and capturing the Pacific Life Open this year over current No. 4 Novak Djokovic. He’s even 2-2 against Federer on hard courts in his career.

 The problem for Nadal has been his play during the summer hard-court season in the United States. Last year out of a possible six tournaments in the U.S. Open Series, Nadal decided to play two.

Nadal obviously felt he needed time off after Wimbledon, but this was not a good plan for the U.S. Open. Nadal lost in the third round of Montreal to Tomas Berdych, whom he drilled in Wimbledon.

Then he lost in the quarters to countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero in Cincinnati, which handed him two questionable results before the quarterfinal loss in the U.S. Open to Mikhail Youzhny.

While Federer’s game is so complete and his strokes rarely if ever show rust, Nadal needs time on the hard courts this summer for no other reason than to build up his confidence.

He cannot take the same time off as Federer, he needs to be tested and challenged entering the U.S. Open. If he goes out and wins two hard-court tournaments that may be enough for him, but two early-round exits in Montreal and Cincinnati like last year will do nothing for his preparation.

Nadal will probably take July off, but it wouldn’t hurt to play in Indianapolis in a couple of weeks and then take a shot in Montreal and Cincinnati. Something in his preparation needs to change.

Federer is in a class by himself on hard courts, as he displayed in not losing a set in Australia.
He has the ability to outhit and outclass every one on the tour not named Nadal.
The world’s No. 2 needs to outwork, outthink and fight harder than his opponent. For some reason his game has yet to translate to the U.S. Open like it has done on clay and grass.

For the sake of tennis, Nadal can not stop with Wimbledon like he did last year. The sport needs him to be in the finals against Federer because if that happens we could be ready to see another classic five-setter and the greatest rivalry in the history of tennis unfolding in front of our very eyes.

Dan Arkans is a writer for  Tennis Mates  and the sports editor of The Reporter in Lansdale, Pa. He was named the 2004 USTA Eastern Pennsylvania Tennis Writer of the Year. E-mail him at dan.arkans@tennismates.com.

Press Contact:
Dan Arkans
dan.arkans@tennismates.com
Phone (215) 538-9008
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