Nadal initially came out with his trademark sprint to the back of the court and certainly the start was spirited enough – went comfortably with serve and from the off we were treated to some great rallies, with great pace.
A couple of uncharacteristic missed backhands from Federer but such errors were to prove to be very few and far between.
It was as if that was a turning point in Federer’s focus as Nadal was broken to love serving at 2-3.
We were treated to an amazing rally and about half way through, something just dialed in to Fed’s game and you got a sense that something remarkable was going to happen. It was as if he was just toying with Nadal, yanking him this way and that before finishing the point off.
With Federer serving for the first set, he took it decisively with stunning cross-court forehand.
My friend commented (as a joke, I hasten to add) that Fed would bagel Nadal in the next although in reality, after such a quick set, the crowd were willing Nadal to rally to give us a deciding set.
So you can imagine what the reaction was when he was broken in the first game of the second set!
Nadal’s serving was very tentative and he just seemed so step-slow at times – his racquet head going in the right direction, but his feet were woefully behind. And there just seemed to be no weapons in his armory – it was really as if he had run out of ideas.
In all the Nadal matches I have watched, I don’t think I have ever seen him play so defensively. He was doing his best to get stuff back, but would find himself out of position and was getting progressively ground down in the rallies. His confidence was looking shot, by now.
He was broken again in the third game, and take nothing away from Federer here – he was seeing the ball like a football and could hardly put a foot wrong.
That is not to say that Nadal didn’t entirely lose his fighting spirit and forced rallies, but you just had to favour Federer in them, as the longer the rally got, the more defensive Nadal got.
The unthinkable happened – in the final game it really looked as though he was resigned to his fate as balls whistled past him.
In fact, my friend pointed out that the speed of his exit from the court was possibly the fastest he’d moved that evening. It was quite simply a thorough dismantling, at the hands of Federer.
A bagel and in around an hour, Federer delivered a message to the WTF that he has every intention of ending the year with that title.
Given that at the moment the lineup is representing the cast of Casualty, the rest of the tournament will be interesting viewing, especially given that even the most enthusiastic of alternates in Tipsarevic limped off court.
And thus endeth the Chalkdust Chronicles for 2011.
Roland Garros, Queens, Wimbledon, Davis Cup and ATP World Tour Finals – not bad.
Next year, Journo school is going to hammer my time at the courts – no RG this year for a start.
Mind you - I have tickets to the 3rd round of the Olympic Tennis because, let’s face it, none of the insane people I love to follow can be trusted not to be packing their bags early!
Roll on 2012!
Chalkdust… signing off…
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