It will mark the first time that Federer and Nadal have met each other in a Grand Slam final outside of London or Paris. They’ve played each other six times in major finals — three on grass at Wimbledon and three on clay at Roland Garros.
This time it’ll be on hard courts at Melbourne Park, where Federer will have a chance to equal Pete Sampras’ Grand Slam singles record of 14.
“Playing Rafa is obviously more exciting because of the history we have playing in so many Grand Slam finals,” Federer said. “Him being the best player in the world at the moment ... a very intriguing match.”
Federer will have an advantage as far as preparation and recuperation. Nadal needed a tournament-record 5 hours, 14 minutes to beat fellow Spanish left-hander Fernando Verdasco in a marathon five-set semifinal Friday, while Federer beat American Andy Roddick in three sets on Thursday.
That gives Federer about 2 days and 21 hours to get ready for the final, and Nadal about 1 day and 18 hours.
“For sure it will be a little bit tough, Roger has a bit of an advantage over me,” Nadal said. “He’s resting right now and for sure he has two days off and one match of only three sets, so at the moment he’s for sure the favorite.”
Not in head-to-head matches, though. Nadal, who overtook Federer for the No. 1 ranking in August, has a 12-6 career edge over the Swiss star, including the last four times they’ve met.
The highest-profile of those victories was last year’s Wimbledon final, where Nadal finally broke through for his first All-England title in a five-set thriller, including 9-7 in the fifth.
Before that, Federer had always ruled on grass, beating Nadal in four and five sets, respectively, in 2006 and 2007.
At the French Open, it’s been all Nadal, although Federer had managed to win four sets off the Spaniard in 2006 and 2007 before being embarrassed last year at Roland Garros, where he won only four games and lost the third set 6-0.
Federer, as is his way, will use some of those past experiences, both good and bad, to his advantage.
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