Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal rarely play each other in exhibitions, so it was difficult to know what to expect before they met in Zurich on Tuesday night.
In this reporter’s mind, the over/under on shots hit between the legs during the match was two—probably one by each of the players. But there were none at all and the match was played with little levity. The only time both engaged in smiles was early in the first set, when Federer put up four lobs before Nadal was able to finally finish the point with a smash.
Federer was just in from Dubai, where he had been practicing outdoors, and he had a bit of a tan to show for it. Early on, it looked as if Nadal had not been hitting very much since the end of last month's ATP World Tour Finals, as he made a string of lame unforced errors. But he soon picked up his game and began hitting his forehand with the same kind of power and precision that allowed him to have such a dominating 2010 season. He won the first set mainly because of a sloppy service game by Federer at 4-all, which ended with an overly-casual forehand volley that plopped into the net.
The first set took 33 minutes, and one sensed Nadal was not about to break Federer’s serve in the opening game of the second set and race to victory in less than an hour. Indeed, he did not break Federer, and he promptly lost his serve in the following game—essentially setting the stage for a third set.
In the final set, both men held serve until Federer broke at 3-all, and then again two games later. He put an exclamation mark on the match with a beautiful, backhand cross-court service return winner to wrap things up, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Noteworthy at various stages of the match was the devastating accuracy of several of Nadal’s forehands and the high quality of Federer’s serving. But there were dead giveaways that it was just an exhibition: Nadal took little time between points and bounced the ball far fewer times than he normally does before serving. He also did not run for a few of Federer’s drop shots.
All and all it was a fun evening, but there was not much to get the 13,000 or so well-heeled Zurich spectators out of their seats, until they tried to manufacture some excitement themselves by doing the ‘wave’ during the final change-over of the match.
Interviewed on court afterward, Federer said, “It’s really difficult to play, I thought, today. We haven’t had any practice on this court. They build it up and tear down.
“It’s so not important who wins the match tonight, it was the Match for Africa. This money is going to go to a really good cause, for my foundation, for kids in Africa.”
As for Nadal, who was greeted by Federer at the airport in Zurich when he arrived, he mentioned Wednesday’s match in Madrid, saying, “Tomorrow will be a different story. It will be Madrid in front of the Spanish people, the Madrid crowd, and it will be very tight for me and very emotional for me. Thanks to Roger for coming tomorrow it’s going to be exciting. We never played each other here in Switzerland before but in Madrid it’s going to be third time, I think. Going to be 1-1, he beat me 2009 and I beat him there in 2010. So it’s going to be the decisive moment.”
The latter was said with a complicit smile on his face, and it will be no shock if he gets the better of Federer in his home country.
“Don’t be surprised tomorrow to see Nadal win in three sets,” commented Nick Lester, who did the broadcast of the match for TennisTV.com. “It’s not really about the result, it’s about raising money.”
Lester quoted Robert Federer, Roger’s father, as saying the match in Zurich would bring in about $1 million.
—Tom Tebbutt