ROME 2013: Federer-Nadal XXX Goes To Nadal 61 63

Rafael Nadal continued his startling 2013 run of good form by defeating his arch-rival Roger Federer  6-1 6-3 in the final of the 2013 ATP Rome Masters in just over an hour. (Interestingly, this was the identical score that Serena Williams beat Victoria Azarenka to win the WTA title right before, although that match took 93 minutes. Nadal has won a tour-leading 6 titles (in 8 finals) in 2013 and has only lost twice while playing 38 matches so far (the vast majority on clay). The 2013 BNL Internazionali d'Italia title is Nadal's 41st clay court title (of 56 ATP tour title) and his record 24th ATP Masters shield. and 7th title in Rome. (Federer is #2 on the all-time list at 21.) In fact, Nadal has already won 3 ATP Masters shields this year Indian Wells (d. Juan Martin del Potro), Madrid (d. Stanislas Wawrinka) and Rome. He lost the ATP Monte Carlo Masters title to Novak Djokovic and lost his first final of the year against the unheralded Horacio Zeballos. World #1 Djokovic failed to reach the final in Madrid (losing to Grigot Dimitrov) and Rome (losing to Tomas Berdych) but I still think if he reaches the final against Nadal in Paris he will have the mental advantage and achieve his career grand slam. He was well on his way to beating Nadal last year when the weather interrupted their match in the fourth set with Djokovic up a break of serve. The question is, will Nole reach the final? The 2013 French Open draw will be released Friday this week and may well be the most important factor in who wins, including whether Andy Murray withdraws (due to a back injury sustained in Rome), thus opening up a spot in the Top 4 for Nadal.

Nadal is now 20-10 in his career head-to-head with Federer and even though the Swiss player is considered the greatest player of all time, it is clear that both the physical and mental matchup with the lefty spin of the Spaniard is something that Federer is unable to handle at this stage of his career. It must be mentioned though that fully half of their thirty meetings have been on clay, with Nadal sporting a 13-2 lead on that surface. On the non-clay surfaces Federer still has  a slight 8-7 lead.  Two-thirds of their meetings have been in finals with Nadal leading 14-6 (but again, they have met in 13 clay court finals, with Nadal leading 11-2 there). Today's final was their first meeting in a final since the 2011 Roland Garros which was won easily by Nadal. Clearly, Federer has been the 2nd best clay-court player for the last decade, but Nadal is the best clay court player of all time.

(Yes, I'm still on my Caribbean vacation but of course I'm still following tennis! Sadly I was unable to see either match this year, although last year at this time I was in Rome.)