Telegraph
by Mark Hodgkinson
April 5, 2024
Rafael Nadal was bounding and bustling, a tennis player with such an engaging presence that if he was a footballer, he often would be charged with inciting the crowd, and that hyper-confidence almost brought him the most startling of victories against Roger Federer on Sunday. He was two points from winning the Nasdaq-100 Open title.
The shot-making, the pumping fists and the bounces of energy were extraordinary, and it could hardly have been closer for Nadal, an 18-year-old Majorcan, in the third set. He was leading by two sets to love and 5-3 in the tie-breaker, when Federer came alive.
A win for Nadal, the youngest finalist in history at Key Biscayne, would have been hugely significant. But even when Federer is performing below his normal level, he is able to beat the rest. At the moment of victory, he threw his head back and celebrated wildly. It mattered that much.
For almost three sets of his 2-6, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 6-1 victory, it looked as though Federer would have to start some of those incredible statistics from zero again. But he somehow survived and has now won his past 22 matches. His only loss this season came in the semi-finals of the Australian Open and he has not been beaten in his past 18 finals - the most recent time that happened was October 2003.
Nadal, a left-hander who hits his groundstrokes with heavy topspin, had been on an unbeaten run of his own, 15 matches before this after winning two small claycourt tournaments back-to-back. He was raised to play on the slower, looping bounce of clay, but switched his energetic tennis to a hardcourt with great skill and restless energy.
Nadal, in his first Masters Series final, will not be the nearly man many times again. He had hoped to beat Federer for the second time in two years here. His win last year was attributed to Federer having sunstroke, but he almost did something more improbable on his own.
Federer would have wanted revenge, but Nadal clearly loves the biggest stages. He showed that in the Davis Cup final last December, propelling Spain to victory against the US. It is hardly a surprise when you consider that his uncle is Miguel Angel Nadal, the former Spanish soccer player who delighted in his nickname of "the beast of Barcelona".
Nadal was hitting his groundstrokes with such clout, the ball rearing up off the hardcourt, that Federer was unable to find any rhythm. He made some wholly uncharacteristic errors, pushing his forehand long over the baseline with a disturbing regularity.
The match could have accelerated through in straight sets. Nadal had been leading 4-1 in the third set before they even entered the tie-breaker. But Federer won the last four points of the third-set tie-breaker and the fourth and fifth sets were quick. It was almost as if Federer had recovered from that situation just because he could.
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