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Rafael Nadal targets revenge over Roger Federer at ATP World Tour Finals
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Rafael Nadal has yet to win the World Tour Finals
- Simon Briggs
After a miraculous year in which he regained the No 1 ranking and claimed his 10th French Open title, we might have expected Rafael Nadal to arrive in London with a regal strut.
The reality is grittier. Nadal comes into Sunday's Nitto ATP Finals with a bad knee and a score to settle with his oldest rival Roger Federer, who has beaten him in all four of their meetings this year. That stings, and Nadal is still grumbling about the way Federer disarmed his greatest weapon – red clay – by skipping the entirety of the European clay-court season.
“It would be great to finish the year playing against him again and to give me another chance,” said Nadal, who lost against Federer in the finals of the Australian Open, the Miami Open and the Shanghai Masters, as well as in the fourth round at Indian Wells.
“You cannot forget that we played all the time on surfaces that he likes more than me,” added Nadal. “Just accept that and just find different ways to approach the match. If that happens and I am healthy enough, I hope to have my chances.”
To conclude the perfect year, Nadal would need to come through his group – which also includes Grigor Dimitrov, Dominic Thiem and David Goffin – to reach next weekend’s semi-finals. And then to overcome Federer in a grandstand finish, preferably in the final.
Such a denouement would reproduce the excitement produced by Andy Murray’s showdown with Novak Djokovic in the final at the O2 last year. Indeed, it would probably draw an even greater audience to the BBC’s coverage, even if the top ranking spot is not on the line this time as it was 12 months ago.
For Nadal, success in London would taste all the sweeter because of an unexpected fact: surprisingly, the ATP Finals remains one of the few tournaments he has never won. Asked yesterday whether he would take extra motivation from this rare empty space on his CV, he replied: “It’s true that it’s always in my mind, but at the same time it’s always in my mind that I have qualified 13 times and have never played on a different surface to this one.”
Again, a trace of chippiness there from Nadal. Clearly the hard surfaces at the O2 Arena have not suited him as well as they have Federer, but then the end-of-season finals are obliged to be held indoors, unless the leading players are to make a long flight to a tropical destination. His preference would be for an indoor clay court, but such surfaces are an oddity, rarely seen outside the Davis Cup.
Roger Federer remains elusive on whether he will challenge in next year's clay court season CREDIT: REUTERS
While Nadal is right to say that he qualified for the Finals 13 times, he has only participated seven times to date. His body is usually protesting by this late stage of the year, ground down by the relentlessness of his game style. This year, his right knee has been problematic, ruling him out of the Paris Masters ten days ago.
“I go day by day,” said Nadal, who is due to open his tournament against David Goffin on Monday night. “I didn’t play a normal session. I played one hour 30 yesterday, two hours today, one hour the day before yesterday. I am taking care and I don’t force more than what I can. I can’t predict what might happen in the next couple of days but my feeling is that I’m here to play and to try my best.”
As for Federer, he was asked yesterday whether he plans to return to the clay next season. The answer went on for several minutes, without giving any assurances. “I’m talking about that with my team right now,” he replied, “because they were a big part of me taking the decision [in April]. They said ‘Remember the year before, when you had problems with your knee on the clay’. That’s when I said, ‘OK, maybe it is the right decision not to push it, because it’s been a great season so far’.”
