Golden Oldies

This week on TENNIS.comwe’ve been flashing back to 2006, when Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer played a five-set, five-hour final in Rome. If today's tennis universe had a Big Bang, that was it.

“We have lift off,” we wrote on this site when it was over; a game-changing rivalry had been born. A decade later, the sport is still soaring on the wings that Rafa and Roger gave it that Sunday afternoon.

But every era, no matter how golden, must pass, and this one has already lasted longer than any that came before it in the Open era. On Thursday in Rome, nearly 10 years to the day since they created the future together, Federer and Nadal were back on center court at the Foro Italico to face it. In a poetic twist, they were matched up against 22-year-old Dominic Thiem and 21-year-old Nick Kyrgios, the two players of their generation who have been touted as the most likely to follow in Rafa and Roger’s Grand Slam-winning footsteps.

In these battles between upstarts and legends, Nadal and Federer fought against the frailties and fallibilities that come with age; one of them made it through, the other didn’t.

In another, not-so-poetic twist, this time it was Federer whose frailties were physical, and ultimately insurmountable. For most of the last decade, it has been Nadal whose body has waged war on him: Injuries to his foot, knees, wrist, back and even appendix have made his career a series of peaks and valleys. At the same time, Federer, whose on-court footprint has always been lighter, cruised along largely unscathed; at the Australian Open this year, he played in a men’s record 57th straight major.

But a day after that Aussie Open, bad luck finally struck: Federer turned his knee the wrong way in the bathtub and had to have surgery. Since then, that bad luck has continued: Federer flew to Miami only to pull out with gastroenteritis. He flew to Madrid only to pull out after aggravating a lower-back injury. And this week in Rome his back forced him to “take it one practice at a time.”

Federer’s back obviously hindered him in his 7-6 (2), 6-4 loss to Thiem. When he was stretched to the forehand side, he struggled to take a full swing. For the first time that I can remember, he gave up on a point early and started walking to the sideline before the ball was past him. But Federer still made Thiem, who was 0-1 against him before Thursday, sweat it out. When he wasn’t stretched, Federer could swing away, and he swung freely enough to pull off at least one vintage combination: Late in the second set, he carved under a slice backhand approach and followed it by carving in the opposite direction for a sharp-angle volley winner. But Thiem steadied himself down the stretch for the win.

Leaner now than he was 10 years ago in Rome, Federer has tried everything possible to stay as light as possible and keep the inevitable slowdown that comes with age at bay. He has mostly succeeded, but even the immortals can turn the wrong way in the bathtub. Federer had hoped to skip the clay Masters events and save himself for Wimbledon, the Olympics and the U.S. Open, but his injuries forced him to play instead. With this loss, he has just one more clay event left, the French Open, before he can finally move on to his favored grass and hard courts. Since February, Federer has essentially been in a holding pattern; at 34, there are only so many of those you can afford.

For Nadal, of course, clay is home. Two years after Kyrgios stunned him on grass at Wimbledon, this was Rafa’s chance to get him on his favorite surface and exact a little payback. Once upon a time, that payback would have been automatic, but even Nadal, who will be 30 next month, isn’t a sure thing on dirt anymore. While Federer’s weaknesses at the moment are physical, Nadal’s are psychological. And like Federer's ailments, these mental struggles are unusual for Rafa, who is rightfully described as one of the sport’s all-time great competitors. Nadal has spent much of this season trying to return to his old, ruthless self, and leave the jittery character who has taken his place behind.

That inner battle continued against Kyrgios on Thursday. Rafa's loss to the Aussie at Wimbledon, as well as the up-and-comer's cannon serve and loose-cannon personality, put him on edge. Nadal reached set point in the first set, but as he has so many times in the past, he tightened up on a second-serve return. In the tiebreaker a few minutes later, he double faulted at a crucial juncture and followed it with an even tighter forehand that went long.

In the second set, Nadal, with nothing more to lose, relaxed and began to dominate. But the nerves returned at the start of the third. At 1-1, Rafa reached break point twice, but both times he hit tight, short returns that Kyrgios pummeled. Finally, on the third try, there was a breakthrough: Rafa hit through the return, sent it deep and finished the rally with a hooking, down-the-line forehand winner. From there, Nadal’s nerves were severely tested as he tried to hold his serve four times for the win. But this time his nerves and his serve held up, and revenge was his, 6-7 (3), 6-2, 6-4.

The hooking forehand winner that Rafa hit against Kyrgios looked much like the ones he had hit against Federer in Rome in 2006—so did the fist pump and leg kick that followed it. Like Federer, Nadal is leaner now, and the fashion statements of his teen years—the piratas and sleeveless shirts—have been traded in for more conventional looks (though they're only slightly less loud). The thing that stuck out most about Rafa on Thursday, the 30-year-old Rafa, was how passionate he still was about winning, how much he cared about the result, how much he wanted to overcome the frailties that had crept into his game. Kyrgios is nine years younger, but while he competed well down the stretch, he couldn’t sustain the same enthusiasm for the battle over the long run as Rafa.

Ten years after their own era began, Federer and Nadal see the future ahead, and they want to be a part of it for as long as their bodies and minds let them.