Nadal Triumphs Over Out of Form Federer

    At 3:30 a.m. Eastern Time Thursday morning, the two greatest champions ever to grace the sport of tennis walked onto the court at the Rod Laver Arena for the semi-finals of the 2012 Australian Open. Rafael Nadal walked into this match leading the Swiss Maestro Roger Federer head-to-head in matches 17-9. Although I'm not sure how much that affected Federer walking into the match, it is a daunting number considering Nadal leads him on the outdoor hard courts by 5–1.

    Today it wasn't Nadal who beat Federer though. It was Roger himself. In the four set epic that took almost over 3 1/2 hours Federer was able to commit a stunning 63 errors to Nadal's 36 in a 7-6, 2-6, 6-7(5), 4-6 defeat. Compared to the Federer in the earlier rounds who didn't drop a single set, the one replacing him today was just not what it would take to defeat a determined Rafa.

    Federer looked to be playing his A game when starting the match, racing to a 3-0 lead but fell quickly into playing a game that looked both tentative and  unplanned. Several times during the match, Federer launched himself at the net for no apparent reason, often resulting in the easy passing shot that Nadal has no trouble dealing with. Federer was only able to win 35 of 57, 61% of his net points. His serve was also effected, only getting 64% of his first serve in, 5 double faults, and 11 aces, while Nadal had 77% first, only 1 double fault, and 4 aces. With all of these errors, Roger was able to scrape up a first set win, although on a tiebreak, but Rafa just steamrolled through the next 3 sets to the finish.

    So what happened to Roger then? Why suddenly did he start playing so poorly? The answer to that is not that he has lost form, or that at age 30 he is too old for the level of play that is required in this golden age of tennis. Its that through the years of defeat facing Nadal, Federer has developed an underdog sort of belief that no matter what he does, Nadal has proven time and time again that he outplays Federer. Current world number 1 Novak Djokovic and number 4 Andy Murray all fear the Federer game, and know full well that Federer will bring his best tennis to the courts that day. Nadal, on the other hand it seems, can now not have that sort of pressure because based on Federer's play on Wednesday, he will never play his best tennis against Nadal.

    Federer brings out the best tennis Nadal can produce. Nadal brings out the worst in Federer. Hopefully Roger can pick himself up from this defeat, and go back to the dominating form he had ending last year, winning the titles at Basel, BNP Paribas, and the year end ATP World Tour at the O2 Arena in London and accumulating a 17 match winning streak. Roger still shows that he has the ability to produce magnificent tennis and this 2012 season should prove whether or not he can produce it at the critical moments. Based off of his performance here at the AO, it seems he may be in a little bit of trouble.