5 instances when Roger Federer decimated Rafael Nadal

Tennis has given us a lot of champions since it started. There have been a lot of rivalries in the sport. Borg-Mcenroe was a prime example of such a rivalry in the 80’s and Sampras-Agassi produced similar tennis in the mid 90’s and early 2000’s. Then came the likes of Federer, Nadal, Djokovic who have been dominating the sport for the last 15 years and have broken many records in the journey.

This generation was privileged enough to have witnessed one of the greatest rivalries in the sport, if not the greatest between Federer and Nadal which we fans call it ‘Fedal’. They first met at the Miami Masters in 2004 where the Spaniard got the better off the then World No.1 and surprised everyone. From then on, they have been involved in 38 matches with Nadal winning 23(Hard-9, Clay-13, Grass-1) to Federer’s 15(Hard-11, Clay-2, Grass-1) victories across surfaces.

We have witnessed the best tennis ever played, thanks to them. There have been matches where both of them had an equal chance to win, say 2008 Wimbledon final or 2017 Australian Open. Along with this, there have been many one-sided matches as well. Federer is on a 5-match winning streak since winning in the finals of Basel in 2015. Let's take a look at 5 matches where Federer was too much to handle for Nadal:

#5. Miami 2017:

It started at the same place 13 years ago and not much has changed except that this time Federer defeated Nadal in the final to clinch his 3rd title. He got the better of his foe 6-3,6-4 without breaking too much sweat closing the H2H to 14-23.

This also marked Federer’s third Sunshine Double(winning Indian Wells and Miami)joining Djokovic in the elite list. This meant he had won 19 matches losing only 1 with three titles in the bag.

There have been several instances where Federer had no answers to Nadal’s game on clay as well as on hard courts. That calls for another article. For now, let us sit back and enjoy this rivalry that has taken the sport to another dimension.