Nadal can set his sights on Federer’s title, because he still has time to be the greatest

NEW YORK— Pepsi or Coke?

The tennis taste challenge depends on personal fizz factors: Rafael Nadal or Roger Federer.

Fans can decide who they prefer, which might be a matter of style and personality. Of course Rafa isn’t as fluent in English as the multilingual Roger, so a more nuanced dimension is lost in communication with the public as channeled through reporters.

But by standards that can be subjectively mattered, who is the greater player? And if Federer is often described as the GOAT— Greatest Of All Time — then is there even any room for debate?

Pose the question a different way, however, and surely there is.

Who will be the greatest player five years from now? Ten years from now? Not just of his time but genuinely of all time.

The Swiss Maestro, as a complete package, is more fascinating to the wider world beyond tennis, more lavishly portrayed in coverage that borders on hagiography, more beloved by every audience outside of Spain — and, heck, two sets of identical twins just lards the magnificometer.

Nadal isn’t dressed by Anna Wintour and doesn’t spend a free weekend at Bill Gates’ Seattle estate discussing physics, philanthropy and Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester, for which the Microsoft co-founder paid $30.8 million.

Though Nadal did have Tiger Woods in his box for Friday night’s semifinal and that’s not a bad get.

More to the point, unlike Federer, Nadal is still here, on the hard courts at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, bidding for his third U.S. Open title. That would be his sosweet 16th Grand Slam trophy, and put him a mere three behind Federer. And he is five years younger.

Nadal is enjoying a resurgence of his own, if not as remarkable as 2017 has been for Federer after he bottomed out last year with arthroscopic surgery. The Spaniard is healthy and playing free again, playing with passion, a word he uses frequently.

If he emerges victorious on the final day of competition at Flushing Meadows, Nadal will depart New York with a Slam sandwich — two major titles on the season, this one and the French Open, his 10th at Roland Garros, where Federer had declined to venture.

Federer won the other two, the Australian Open, where he prevailed over Nadal in a breathtaking fivesetter, and Wimbledon.

But can Federer ever have such a magical season again? He certainly didn’t look so god-like against Juan Martin del Potro in their quarterfinal.

Nadal is 31, No. 1 in the world — a ranking he won’t shed regardless of what happens Sunday afternoon — and clearly has a whole lot of tennis left in him if the world unfolds as it should. He won his first major as a teenager; there’s no reason why he can’t continue to rack up the titles into his mid-30s. Only his style of play — with abandon, physical, aggressive — might imperil a recordssmashing career because of the inherent risk to an aging body.

Not to take anything away from Federer, who epitomizes tennis as a sport both balletic and athletic, his shot-making unparalleled, his fluidity on the court unmatched. Coke or Pepsi? And then there’s, um, Sam’s Club Cola (a Walmart brand, named for its founder).

The generic tennis brand also-ran Kevin Anderson catapulted into his first career Slam final following his first career Slam semifinal, a four-set dispatch of Pablo Carreno Busta on Friday.

A bazooka-serving South African, his next ace in Queens will be a tournament-leading No. 115. He is “over the moon” to find himself, at age 31 and with a modest career record, on this centre stage at the last major of the tennis season, in the Bright Lights Big City.

The oft-injured Anderson, the 28th seed, took advantage of the soft underbelly of his half of the draw, one decimated by injury withdrawals and top seeds toppled early.

“I really need to be dominant and control proceedings as much as possible,” Anderson said post-match Friday, when he still wasn’t sure who his opponent would be in the final. “If you let him do it, it’s very difficult.”

Nadal proved his own mettle in a four-setter with the admittedly exhausted and still flu-ridden Juan Martin del Potro in what many con- sidered the de facto final. That match was heavily one-sided after del Potro took the first set and not just for the bagel Nadal posted in the second set. By then Nadal had altered tactics after serving too much and too predictably to the Argentine’s backhand. He began playing forehands and passing shots down the line, forcing del Potro to cover more of the court.

“I didn’t have the right determination at the beginning to make that happen,” Nadal said.

“Sometimes you need to lose or you need to see that things are not going well to really take that position and I made it.’’

Anderson was clearly emotional after his semi win, clambering up to his box. He became the lowest-ranked finalist at a major since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga reach the final of the Australian Open in 2008 at No. 38.

And he could be a footnote trivia answer by Monday morning.

Don’t expect a Classic.