Federer gets the better of Nadal

This will go down in tennis history as the year Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal reminded us that “their greatness is undiminished”, said Barry Flatman in The Sunday Times. The players have dominated 2017 by taking two grand slam titles apiece: Federer won the Australian Open and Wimbledon, Nadal the French Open and the US Open. But in head-to-heads this year, Federer has got the better of his great rival, said Simon Briggs in The Daily Telegraph. Federer’s win on Sunday, in the Shanghai Masters, was his fifth over Nadal in a row. Nadal still has the edge overall: the 31-year-old has won 23 of their 38 meetings. But Federer has the superior record on hard courts and grass; it is only on clay “that he has taken a beating, with 13 defeats and just two victories against the greatest clay specialist of this or any other age”.

Currently No. 2 in the rankings, behind Nadal, the “extraordinary Swiss” could now leapfrog his rival to finish the year in the top spot, said Mike Dickson in the Daily Mail. And he would be doing it aged 36, an age once considered “geriatric” in tennis. Nadal is still 1,950 points ahead – “a large cushion” – but you wouldn’t bet against Federer in this form. Even now, he is finding ways to get better: his improved backhand helped him negate Nadal in Shanghai. He has reached seven finals this year and won six of them – the kind of dominance he enjoyed “when he was at the height of his powers”.