2018 US OPEN FINAL:
ROGER FEDERER VS RAFAEL NADAL
Imo it will be the most important tennis match in men's tennis history. Also I think the hype is going to be something like we have never seen including the Australian Open final from 2017. I've never seen or heard of hype over a tennis match like the hype from the 2017 final in Melbourne! However if this match truly takes place like I think it will the hype is going to be even more than the final of 2017 in Australia. There will be so much on the line you could almost call it a fairytale! The winner of that match would have two slams for the year and regardless of what the computer says whomever wins that match is number one in the world with an exclamation point! Roger would be going for six straight wins against Nadal at the ripe old age of 37! Rafa will be trying to reverse the recent history between them in order to get back the upper hand that both of them fight so hard to have in this rivalry! There have been talks for years about how Rafael better be glad he didn't meet Roger in the US Open finals from 2004-2008 and on the flip side the Nadal fans have been saying Federer was lucky he never played Nadal in the finals during that five year run of titles between 2004-2008. During those five years of dominance from Roger he defeated five different opponents and all of them at one point have been number one in the world, and also all five were considered the best hard court players in the world at a certain point. Another interesting fact that gets missed during those five years is the fact that not only did Hewitt, Agassi, Roddick, Djokovic and Murray all reach number one in the world, but they were all US Open champions at some point. Hewitt- 2001, Agassi- 1994 and 1999, Roddick- 2003, Djokovic- 2011 and 2015, Murray- 2012. That fact alone has always led me to believe Federer is the best champion in US Open history! The one thing he has not done is beat Rafael Nadal at the US Open. Is that his fault? Partly, but not entirely. It was Rafa that could not hold up his end of the deal from 04-08, but starting in 2010 up until now it has been Nadal who has been the more consistent figure in the final Sunday at Flushing Meadows, New York. He won the title in 2010 completing the career slam which in my opinion is required to even be in the running for the GOAT and it was Novak Djokovic who he defeated in a very exciting final! That may have been the greatest hard court tennis Nadal has ever played! I often compare it to the tennis Federer played in 2004 against Hewitt in the final. Yes, Rafa was that good during those two weeks of play! I thought as I am sure the remainder of the tennis world thought that we would get a final between the two GOATS in 2010, but Djokovic did not allow it! Once again in 2011 Federer had two match points just like the year before except this time on his serve, and in my opinion choked the match away. Yes I know Novak hit that return down 40-15, but the remainder of the game was very weak from the current GOAT! So we have five years where Nadal did not hold up his end of the bargain and two years where Federer did not hold up his end of the bargain. I do not count the times they could have played in a quarter or semi. I'm a finals guy and that's where these guys have become legends! Another important stat in this potential match would be that Nadal has beaten Federer in the finals of Australia, Paris and London, and this would be the clean sweep as I call it if he were to beat Federer in New York in the US Open final! That would be HUGE for Rafa and catastrophic for Roger! On the other hand now that Federer has beaten Nadal in the 2017 Australian Open finals he would be going for a trio of wins at the slams to tie his fiercest rival! He has beaten Nadal in Melbourne and London, and New York would square them all up! So you have all of that riding on this one possible match that would be played in the largest stadium in the world in front of 25,000 spectators! My very last point about what would be on the line in this match is this. Imo this single match would and will determine which of these men goes down as the GOAT over probably the next 100 years or so! Here is why. If Rafa wins this match he's going to break the record without a shadow of a doubt! He will have defeated Federer in the finals of all four slams and will be two slams shy of Federer's current twenty slam titles! If Rafa gets that close then it will be destiny for him to break the record over the next three or four years! The loss would destroy Federer regardless of the coolness he would try to portray outwardly! I do not think he would recover from this loss, and in my opinion it would be the end of his slam winning days and possibly the last straw to push Federer out of the game! Yes I have heard him talk about the love of the game and all of that, and as one of his biggest fans I believe him when he says he loves the sport, but this loss would be it folks!! That's the good news for the Nadal fanatics and the bad news for us Federer fanatics. Now let's look at the opposite. We currently stand in the race for the GOAT at 20-17 and if Roger can somehow at 37 years of age defeat Nadal for a sixth consecutive time he would move to a very healthy 21-17 lead which is a gap of four slam titles! That would be to much of a gap for Rafa to make up over the next few years. Lastly and definitely not least a win in a months time would make Federer winningest champion in US Open history!! He currently shared the record with Pete Sampras and Jimmy Connors respectively!! That means Roger would be the soul owner of the most titles in London at Wimbledon and in New York at the US Open! That's half of the slams he would hold the record at!! So all in all those are the reasons I would consider this the most important tennis match in men's tennis history! I'm sorry for the long paragraph, but I'm not very good with grammar and paragraphs, but I did my best. Btw my pick to win the hypothetical match in four weeks time would be Roger Federer in five sets and five hours! Yes he's my favorite, but that is not why I pick him to win. The reason I pick him to win is a gut feeling and a gut feeling only! So let's all enjoy this weeks tournament in Cincinnati, but Fed fans don't get bent out of shape if he loses this week because Roger has his eye on the US Open! Cheers!
