FEDERER EXTENDS RUN AGAINST NADAL
Federer wins Shanghai Masters, improves head to head vs. Nadal to 23-15 Roger Federer beats rival Rafael Nadal for the fourth time this year Federer says he doesn’t expect to catch up with Nadal on head to head
Roger Federer extended his winning streak over Rafael Nadal this year to four matches after beating the top-ranked Spaniard 6-4, 6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters on Sunday.
The Swiss 19-time grand slam winner, who still trails Nadal 2315 in their overall head-to-head record, didn’t face a break point and started and ended the match with service breaks.
“I don’t know what my expectations were going in,” Federer said. “I thought I might struggle early on because it was a late finish last night.
“I had no nerves before the match, surprisingly. I think I was pretty clear about how I wanted to play the match. I started off very well and relaxed from then on.”
Despite his dominance in 2017, Federer doesn’t rate his chances of catching Nadal in their head-tohead record.
“It’s not going to happen. We don’t have enough years left on the tour. We ranked too good so we play each other only in finals at the moment... You can’t win them all against Rafa, to be honest. He’s too good of a player,” Federer said.
Federer took advantage of three of seven break point opportunities in the match to snap Nadal’s 16-game winning streak, which included his China Open victory last week.
Federer, who has won the last five encounters between the pair dating back to the 2015 Basel final, also beat Nadal in the Australian Open final, a round of 16 match at Indian Wells and the Miami final this year.
“Have been a very difficult match for me,” Nadal said. “He played very fast and he played well.
“Of course was not the best match for me of the week. When somebody plays better than you, sport is not very difficult. That’s the real thing, no? When you play against somebody that is better than you in most of the things that really matters in this sport, in this kind of surface, then it’s tougher.”
The Shanghai Masters is Federer’s 94th career title, moving him into a tie with Ivan Lendl in second place on the Open era list.
Nadal arrived on court with a bandage under his right knee, the same leg he twice smacked with his racket after losing his serve for the first time this week in the semifinal.
Federer said he was surprised to see the wrap and didn’t feel Nadal was struggling with his movement. /