KEY BISCAYNE, Fla., April 3 -- Things looked so bleak for Roger Federer, the world's No. 1 player, in the third set of today's Nasdaq-100 Open final that the usually staid Swiss star wound up and spiked his racket into the middle of the court after a mis-hit. He glared with annoyance at over-enthusiastic fans before serving. He screamed, barked, threw his hands into the air, shook his head.
But slightly more than an hour after having lost two sets and fallen behind 4-1 in the third, Federer tossed his racket again -- only this time more gently and under considerably different circumstances. After watching Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the world's 31st-ranked player, hit a ball into the net to secure Federer's stunning comeback victory by a 2-6, 6-7 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5), 6-3, 6-1 margin, the relieved champion delightedly pitched his racket to a fan in the stands.
Roger Federer, above, had 74 unforced errors and nine double faults in his five-set win over 18-year-old Rafael Nadal.
(Carlos Barria - Reuters)
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"By then, I'm the most happiest person," Federer said. "To come back, this is not the normal thing I'm doing."
Indeed, Federer extended his match winning streak to 22 and his finals winning streak to 18, but none tested him quite like this 3-hour 42-minute marathon. Usually as precise as a computer, the Swiss-born Federer struggled to adapt to a crafty left-hander and windy conditions, and his festering frustration proved another obstacle. He committed 74 unforced errors, 20 more than Nadal, and double-faulted nine times.
"I was very worried today," Federer said. "I was struggling. It has a lot to do with his game. . . . To come through at the end is unbelievable."
Federer hung on just long enough to spin the match in his direction. He squeezed into a third-set tiebreaker using timely aces, a few mistakes by Nadal and one errant call -- according to television replays. After claiming the set when Nadal struck a backhand long, Federer, it seemed, started the match all over, dismantling his clearly exhausted opponent in the last two sets.
"He is the number one," said Nadal, who also handed Federer one of his six losses last year at this tournament. "He won these matches. I am happy with my tennis, and not happy with the result."
At the start of this tony tournament, as some fans with their wide-brimmed sunhats and designer sunglasses gazed at the 18-year-old Nadal, they might have wished he would take his oversized tangerine muscle shirt, white below-the-knee shorts (he called them "pirates") and white bandanna across the street to the Crandon Park beach, where the apparel would have seemed more appropriate.
By midway through the match, however, the crowd could count itself among Nadal's most enthusiastic supporters, calling out his nickname, "Rafa," and serenading him with ole! chants as he flew around the court, retrieving just about everything Federer sent his way and firing return shots with bluster and reckless abandon.
Nadal was relentless and gutsy. Facing a break point at 4-all in the third set, he struck a 107-mph, second-serve ace. He hit passing shots from inconceivable angles and turned shots he had to run down into winners. Though he has never played in the French Open, he will enter this year's event an immediate favorite.
Nadal began the match by breaking Federer's serve and dominated the first set. Federer, meantime, sprayed balls uncharacteristically and seemed flummoxed by the left-hander's pace and spin. In the second set, Federer began to look like his old self, plastering winners on the court's corners to take a 4-1 lead, seemingly turning the tide. Nadal, however, continued pounding the ball and running down shots, and Federer could not end the spates of misfires.
There was a Federer mis-hit on an easy overhead that would have given him set point in the eighth game. There were a pair of Federer forehands that struck the net to shoot down two set points two games later, with Federer up 5-4.
"I was very disappointed," he said. "I was missing one opportunity after another. I really felt like I was climbing uphill all of the time."
In winning 48 of 49 matches since the start of last year's U.S. Open, Federer had lost just 14 sets -- an average of one about every four matches -- before today. Perhaps that's why, after dropping the second set, Federer looked finished. Despite losing his composure repeatedly, he still managed to break Nadal's serve in the seventh game of the third set, then stayed on serve the rest of the way. In what was a rare sight to that point, Nadal blew a big point, hitting a backhand long to lose the tiebreak.
"In the third set, I have a good sensation, a good feeling," Nadal said. "I was playing good tennis. I am with confidence that I win the match. But he played good in the important moments."
Federer sliced through Nadal in the fourth set and then cruised, for the first time all day, in the final set. On Nadal's last mis-hit, Federer threw his arms into the air and punched the sky.
"I knew," Federer said, "the danger of Nadal today."
