Nadal vs Federer is a classic final

As Roger Federer contemplated the challenge of returning to competition after six months on the sidelines, even the best player in history needed to look for inspiration. He found it when he travelled to Majorca in October to help launch Rafael Nadal’s new academy.

“You’ve done it a million times, so I can be inspired by the way you made it look so easy when you came back,” Federer told his greatest rival at the opening ceremony. “You came back to the world’s top 10, top five, even world No 1. That’s something that I’m going to be thinking about when I come back to the tour in January.”

At the time, with Federer recovering from a knee injury and Nadal about to curtail his 2016 campaign because of a wrist problem, the 35-year-old Swiss and the 30-year- old Spaniard joked that all they were fit for was a brief game of mini tennis with the academy’s juniors.

Three months on, however, the two biggest names in tennis are preparing to rekindle their rivalry on one of the sport’s great stages. When they contest the Australian Open final here on Sunday it will be their ninth meeting in Grand Slam finals, with Federer aiming to add to his lone two victories, at Wimbledon in 2006 and 2007. Federer will be the oldest men’s Grand Slam singles finalist for 43 years.

Men’s tennis has been dominated by the so-called “Big Four” for more than a decade now, but in truth it is a two-division super league. Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic are currently the world No 1 and No 2 respectively, but in terms of global appeal, Federer and Nadal have remained the sport’s greatest attractions, despite their comparative lack of success in recent times. THE INDEPENDENT