One thing is for sure- sometimes a fiery prayer might have quite a result. A couple of days back, the idea of having Federer and Nadal fighting for the men's singles title at the Australian Open took its first step into people's heads. They were in different parts of the draw, so, in theory, their only chance for a meeting was the very final of the tournament.
As Djokovic saw his bid ending and then Murray's uninspired match against Zverev, the wild idea of a Federer vs Nadal match got stuck quite serious in everybody's minds. Yesterday, Federer put in a great effort in order claim a hard-earned victory against Wawrinka.
Today, it was Nadal's turn to make his way to the final.
Dimitrov fought hard but it was not sufficiently
By playing his first semifinal of the career in Melbourne, Grigor Dimitrov (15 ATP) had to deal with a lot of pressure. The opener was mostly under Nadal's will with Dimitrov barely hanging around. The Spaniard (9 ATP) took the opening set by 6-3.
Dimitrov is one of those guys who can play extremely well but eventually, he`ll have difficulties in maintaining that elevated pace. In the 2nd set, both players kept the level high. After a series of serve being broken, Dimitrov took the set by 7-5. The 3rd act saw the same scenario as the previous one did, the only difference being that it went all the way to a decisive tie-break were an unleashed Nadal prevailed by 7-6(5).
The Bulgarian refused to surrender and the 4th set went once again into a tie-break where Dimitrov kept his nerve in place and won the set by 7-6(4) pushing the clash into a decisive 5th set. Each player served quite well saving some break points during the process but then it came the 9th game where Dimitrov failed to stay above the floating line.
Nadal broke and then he served out the set and the match.
Nostalgia will hit the court during the final
When it comes to these 2 guys, namely Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, there is no one thing left unuttered. But seeing them into a Grand Slam final at this point was so hard to imagine a week ago. Both came in Melbourne with low expectations as their previous season went way off course having gruelling injuries and recovery periods to deal with.
But they are back, and their hunger for success is still there.
The last meeting between them took place at an ATP 500 event in Basel back in 2015. It was Federer who won in 3 sets 6-3 5-7 6-3. But last time they played against each other having a Grand Slam title as stake happened back in 2011 at the French Open. There, it was Nadal who claimed the victory.
Overall, Nadal leads Federer by 23-11 in direct meetings. Along with Djokovic, Nadal is one of Federer's Nemesis in the ATP circuit.
