Here We Go Again!

The head-turning sport of tennis over its winding course of history has seen many amazing rivalries. First, there were the two courtly Queens on the court, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova who faced eachother in 14 Grand Slam finals in 15 years. There was the US vs. Sweden episode in Jimmy Connors and Bjorn Borg. Borg also had his share of memorable duels with McEnroe, most notably in the 1980 US Open. And hey, don’t forget Monica Seles/Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi/Pete Sampras.

In the 21st century, you’d have to be awfully naïve to not realize that the next great tennis rivalry is already in its prime. This weekend, the pair will go tete-on-tete again at the Roland Garros in the second Grand Slam of the year. You know who I’m talking about, talented Swiss Roger Federer and pugnacious Spaniard Rafael Nadal are set to meet for the 17th time in pursuit of a major tennis trophy as well as the 4th French Open session and counting.

On clay, Rafa is an almost unblemished 8-1 against the Fed Express, whose dominant grip on the tennis world has been greatly challenged this season. For the first time in 10 consecutive Slam tournaments, the world #1 bowed out ahead of the finals at the flabbergasting Aussie Open this January. As for Nadal, he has been excluded from the finals since Wimbledon of last year. But as the pundits expected (without too many surprising twists this time), Rafa has been playing some of the best tennis of his life in Paris the past 2 weeks with zero lost sets and will be going for his 4th straight Roland Garros title.

Roger Federer has been on the pinnacle of the tennis skyscraper for 227 weeks in a row now and Rafa #2 for more than 110 weeks. If there’s anyone out there who doesn’t think this rivalry ranks in the Top 3 most fierce yet friendly in tennis, perhaps sports history, they need to tune in tomorrow morning into NBC! I certainly will be ‘cause I never get bored of it. The energy that Nadal excerpts into every stroke is an absolute contrast to the calmness of master Roger. Federer’s shots are so accurate and deceptive, no one can “defend” against them.. well.. no one except Nadal, of course, who definitely has Fed’s #s in Paris.

Every time Nadal and Federer play against eachother, it’s like the Yankees facing the Red Sox. And tomorrow morning, even former legends like Bjorn Borg will be on hand to watch that new tennis rivalry renewed for the 17th time.

-D