Across The Net: Federer Beats Nadal on Clay, Hewitt and Moya Are In Form, and Sampras Wins In Athens
Posted by Dan Martin on 05.21.2007
A monumental streak ends, the Fed is back, Hewitt and Moya look solid and Sampras keeps winning. All of this inside this week’s Across the Net!
Player of the Week
Roger Federer claimed his fourth German Open and his 13th Masters Series title. Federer also snapped Rafael Nadal's 81 match clay court winning streak and a personal 5 match clay court losing streak vs. Nadal. Federer winning 2-6, 6-2, 6-0 makes the 2007 French Open more interesting. Federer won this week by grinding out 4 wins in which he dropped a set, but wins over 2003 French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero, David Ferrer, 1998 French Open champion Carlos Moya and 2005 & 2006 French Open champion Rafael Nadal (all from Spain) ought to make Roger fond of grinding out wins.
Honorable Mentions
1. Rafael Nadal – Rafa tallied 81 Consecutive wins on the most taxing surface in the sport. Add the fact that Nadal has reached the finals of his past 14 clay court tournaments, winning 13 of those events, and he deserves huge credit.
2. Pete Sampras won his second senior tour event in two tries. Sampras defeated Wayne Ferrieria, Pat Cash, Jim Courier and Todd Martin to claim the title. Sampras beat Martin 6-3, 1-6, 10-6 (match tie-break). Sampras is riding an 8 match winning streak on the senior tour and has leapt to the top of the Outback Tour rankings. Sampras vs. Agassi? Could be a big money exhibition.
3. Lleyton Hewitt and Carlos Moya – Lleyton Hewitt is healthy again and may be a dark horse for the French Open. Hewitt defeated a slew of top clay court players (Juan Ignacio Chela, world #3 Nikolay Davydenko, and Nicholas Almagro) before falling to Nadal 2-6, 6-3, 7-5. To win on clay, a player has to be willing to fight and Hewitt will fight anyone. Carlos Moya beat world #12 Thomas Berdych, world #8 James Blake, world #6 Novak Djokovic prior to falling to Federer 4-6, 6-4, 6-2. At 30, I doubt Moya can win the French Open as he did in 1998, but he is playing extremely well. Both former #1's could make a special run in Paris.
Federer and Nadal: Trend Setters
It may get old stating that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are making history, but the two are rewriting many of tennis records.
Surface Winning Streaks:
Hard Court: Roger Federer 56 matches
Clay Court: Rafael Nadal 81 matches (to my mind the most impressive streak)
Grass court: Roger Federer 48 matches (active streak)
Indoor: John McEnroe 75 matches
Consecutive Tournament Finals Won:
1st Roger Federer 24
2nd Rafael Nadal 14
3rd John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg 12
Most Consecutive Weeks Ranked #1
Roger Federer 172 Weeks (active streak)
Most Consecutive Weeks Ranked #2
Rafael Nadal 94 Weeks (active streak)
Masters Series/Super 9 Titles:
1. Andre Agassi 17
2. Roger Federer 13 (active player)
3. Pete Sampras 11
4. Rafael Nadal 9 (active player)
5. Thomas Muster 8
These are only a few of the records the two titans of tennis have written since Federer became elite in 2003 and Nadal in 2005. Federer and Nadal both may break Agassi's Masters Series mark. Their surface streaks seem unbreakable for the foreseeable future. Oddly, Nadal's consecutive weeks at #2 seems to me the least likely of these records to be broken. The only way Nadal's record could be broken would be if two players separate themselves from the pack, like Nadal and Federer, only to have one be clearly #1 for at least two years.
2007 Rankings Battle
Even with Nadal's loss, Rafa's 2007 has been the picture of consistency. Nadal has won Indian Wells, Monte Carlo, Rome, and Barcelona. Nadal was runner-up in Hamburg and reached the quarterfinals at the Australian Open and Miami. Heading into the French Open, Nadal has claimed 370 more ranking points than Federer in 2007. Over the past 52 weeks Federer still has a healthy lead. However, Nadal is ready to duel Federer for #1 in 2007. With the surfaces soon to shift in (what one would assume to be) Federer's favor, Roger may be the smart bet, but not a sure bet to finish 2007 as #1.
The rest of this person's point in the Tiger vs. Federer debate may have some validity, but throwing in that golfers WALK 16 miles over four days, normally at a clip of about 1 mile per hour, is just crazy. All other major sports, other than maybe baseball, would have to scoff at walking as criteria for difficulty.
For more interesting tennis reads, check out Tennis X.
Next Week: French Open Previews & What Ails the Women's Game
PS – No Triple Crown Winner in 2007. Horse Racing could use a new champion horse.
