Federer vs. Nadal, clash of the tennis titans
In 2006, the on-court rivalry between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer was already well established, but it was missing a Grand Slam final in order to become truly legendary. Roland-Garros had the privilege of being the clay-court theatre for this first clash of the titans. Even before the first point was played, the encounter was considered historic, as the last Parisian final featuring both the World No.1 (Federer) and World No.2 (Nadal) was back in 1984, when John McEnroe lost to Ivan Lendl.
A year earlier, Rafa had begun his long reign on clay, and his 2006 campaign read like a preface to his future adventures. In the first round, he played Sweden’s Robin Söderling, who would become the first player to defeat King Nadal at the Porte d’Auteuil three years later. On this occasion, Nadal beat the Swede in straight sets (6-2 7-5 6-1) to clinch his 54th consecutive victory on clay, breaking Guillermo Vilas’ record (the Spaniard took the record to 81 the following year).
Nadal’s win against lucky loser Kevin Kim in the second round was also memorable, not for the match’s result (6-2 6-1 6-4), but for the American’s famous post-match comment: “[Playing Nadal on clay] felt like you’re in the Sahara and you just see the hills, and there’s no ending.” That said, the rest of the tournament was full of ups and downs for the Majorcan, who had to survive a Herculean third-round match against France’s current Davis Cup captain, Paul-Henri Mathieu (5-7 6-4 6-4 6-4). He dropped another set against Lleyton Hewitt in the Round of 16 (6-2 5-7 6-4 6-2), then beat the FFT’s future director of high-performance tennis, Ivan Ljubicic, in the semi-finals (6-4 6-2 7-6).