Top 5 Masters 1000 matches between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal
Two of the greatest tennis players of all-time, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal will be meeting for a 36th time in the fourth round of the Indian Wells Masters. Both players have played really well in the tournament and have not dropped a single set so far.
Their fourth meeting will be their 17th meeting at a Masters 1000 tournament with Nadal leading the head to head by a convincing margin of 12-4. The two have had a number of exciting encounters at the Masters 1000 tournaments and their match at the Indian Wells Masters will be expected to be as exciting as the Australian Open final a few months ago which Federer won.
Also read: Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal's best quotes about each other
With only hours to spare before Federer and Nadal lock horns, let’s take a look at five of the most epic battles between the two at Masters 1000 tournaments.
#5 2013 Cincinnati Masters quarter-finals
After a disappointing Wimbledon campaign, both Federer and Nadal survived third round scares to reach the quarter-finals of the Cincinnati Masters. While Federer came back from a set down to defeat Tommy Haas, Nadal got the better of Grigor Dimitrov, also in three sets, after the latter staged a comeback in the second set.
The match was expected to be very exciting and it turned out to be quite a contest. In a very tight first set, Federer edged out Nadal 7-5 to take the lead in the match. However, the Spaniard was in no mood to throw in the towel and he came back to take the second set 6-4 which gave him a lot of confidence and eventually resulted in him winning the final set and the match.
Nadal subsequently went on to win the tournament by beating Tomas Berdych in the semi-final and John Isner in the final.