The battle of surfaces

One is the undisputed king in his trade, possibly the greatest to have ever stepped onto a court with a tennis racket; some say he is an incarnation of God. The other is a pretender, the king of clay but without too much to shout about on other surfaces. They are the number 1 and 2 players in the world, and daylight separates them from the rest.

In one of the most innovative moves ever, a hybrid half-clay half-grass tennis court was developed for a speculated cost of 8,00,000 pounds in Mallorca. An exhibition match was planned between Federer, who is riding a 42 match winning streak on grass and 4 consecutive Wimbledon titles, and that boy Nadal who hasn't lost on clay for 72 matches and is the winner of the last 2 French Opens. Despite this being an unofficial match, there was room for a number of potential statements to be made during this game, as these 2 players could possibly play the finals of the French Open in a month's time. Federer's defeat to Nadal just a week back in Monte Carlo finals had brought back nightmares of last year. Knowing how dear a rolland garros title is for Federer, few expected him to take this game lightly.


However, as luck would have it, Nadal edged Federer in a nail-biting 3 set thriller, 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 (12-10). Nadal broke Federer twice - once on clay and grass, while Federer broke Nadal once, on grass. It was only appropriate that a game of this nature went down to the wire. Nadal somehow continues to have the upper hand over Roger. I feel Roger has a problem with his backhand against Nadal's topspin. He seems to make too many unforced errors; the slowness of clay doesn't help either. All said and done, there is still not much to suggest that Federer will not win the French this year and create history.

It was a pity that no sports channel aired this 'freak' encounter. I followed it on www.thebattleofsurfaces.com but unfortunately couldn't find any websites that had live commentary or audio/video feed. If anyone comes across highlights of this match on youtube or anywhere else, please share it.