1 Response to miami04nadal_federer

1. Voo de Mar says:

   March 28, 2025 at 11:55 am

   Points won by each set: | 30-25, 28-21 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   18 % Nadal – 9 of 48
   28 % Federer – 16 of 56

   The first of 40 meetings (24-16 Nadal) between them. The “6-3, 6-3” scoreline may be the most misleading among those with a big difference between games won and lost because in theory both players can win the same amount of points, but it wasn’t a case in that night session encounter. [34] Nadal was a better player throughout, and despite his moderate serve (yet not east to return due to high kick) he didn’t even play ‘deuce’ in any of his nine service games. He broke at 2-all and 5:3 in the 1st, and 3:2 in the 2nd set (Federer led 40/0 in that game when forehand errors haunted him). Federer was freshly crowned No. 1 in the world with two big hardcourt titles under his belt (Australian Open, Indian Wells); those events suggested his supremacy over the years to come, but his first meeting against the almost 18-year-old Spaniard also indicated that Nadal would be his toughest opponent, not Hewitt, Roddick, Safin, Nalbandian or Ferrero – these five players were put in the context just a few months earlier. After the sensation in Florida, it was pretty obvious that Nadal’s lefty heavy tops-spins will cause a lot of problems for Federer if he’ll be responding with his backhand standing close to the baseline; besides Nadal’s extraordinary movement in defence wouldn’t allow Federer to obtain as many points with unexpected attacks as he had done facing the vast majority of players in the first months of 2004.

   Serve & volley: Nadal 0, Federer 1/2

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