LONDON — When it comes to tennis rivalries, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal do not do flame-blowing rhetoric. Au contraire. Theirs is a relationship based on mutual admiration, respect and friendship.
That began in 2005 when Nadal, injured the previous week in Madrid, went to Basel, Switzerland, Federer's hometown, to explain his withdrawal from the event there to the local media. He spent time with Federer, himself out with a lower-leg problem that had him on crutches, and one might say they bonded.
Like many people, Federer calls Nadal by the folksy Rafa, while Nadal sometimes uses Rogelio to refer to the Swiss.
"Rafa never, never said a bad word about Roger," Spanish journalist Neus Yerro said yesterday. "That's not so easy when you're young [almost five years younger than Federer], number two and wanting to be number one."
Federer has nothing but kind words for Nadal, while both share a not-so-veiled coolness toward a recent interloper, No.ƒ|3 Novak Djokovic.
Lately, the two have also made common cause in tennis politics, getting elected to the ATP players council to try to play a role in the management of their sport.
Their head-to-head (11-6 for Nadal) going back to 2004 does not quite rate when compared to the 1980s, when Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl and John McEnroe had match totals against each other in the 30s.
But Federer and Nadal have something special going at the European Grand Slams, having monopolized the French Open and Wimbledon finals for an unprecedented three years in a row.
Nadal, 22, has won the past three French Opens while Federer hopes to make it three in a row over the Spaniard on the dusty baselines and grassy forecourts of the All England Club in tomorrow's final.
It is hard to envisage anything but a glorious victory for one and heart-wrenching defeat for the other because so much is at stake. World No.ƒ|1 Federer, 26, can win a sixth consecutive Wimbledon and move within one of Pete Sampras's record of 14 Grand Slam titles.
Six in a row would be one more than Swedish great Bjorn Borg's run from 1976-80 and the same as Englishman Willie Renshaw way back in the garden-party 1880s.
No.ƒ|2-ranked Nadal, after utter dominance on red clay and impressive progress on grass, is desperate for Grand Slam validation elsewhere than Roland Garros.
"Clay courts are just too tough for Federer," Marat Safin said after losing 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-4 to him in yesterday's semi-finals. "Nadal plays an open-stance forehand and backhand so Federer can't really make him stretch. But here he will try to attack him and maybe he has a better chance."
In a remark that makes even 30-somethings feel old, Safin, 28, added about the Federer-Nadal rivalry: "Sampras-Agassi [Andre] was great, but we are too young to understand that. We are living [Federer-Nadal] right now."
Daniel Nestor, 35, is also a Federer-Nadal booster.
"It's great for tennis," Nestor said. "You get that feel of Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier. Federer with all the class and skills and flair, Nadal the brawler kind of guy who's in your face."
Their compatibility does not worry him.
"Once the match starts, they're not thinking about that," Nestor said.
