The two most-contested rivalries in Open Era tennis both include Novak Djokovic. He and Rafael Nadal head the list of most match-ups with 42 meetings, and he and Roger Federer are in second place with 37. While the Djokovic-Nadal rivalry is about brute force power, physicality and suffering, the Djokovic-Federer one involves some of the more beautiful aspects of the sport.
– Relive the Dubai DFTC final – Novak Djokovic vs Roger Federer
– Roger Federer hails growth of Dubai Tennis Championships
– INTERVIEW: Tomas Berdych
The opening game alone of last night’s final between them featured volleys, lobs, slices and every shot in the book you can think of. Federer manages to bring variety out of Djokovic’s game like no other. It helps showcase the Serb’s versatility.
While Djokovic is undoubtedly stronger from the baseline, hitting big groundstrokes from either side, against Federer, the world No1 forces him to hit that one extra shot that more often than not, ends up being magical. It really is a match-up not to be missed.
Our Champion @rogerfederer #DDFTennis pic.twitter.com/GzgwjfPJmR
— Dubai Tennis Champs (@DDFTennis) February 28, 2015
One thing special that Dubai adds to this showdown is the fans. While Federer undisputedly has the loudest supporters worldwide, there is a very enthusiastic and vocal Serbian community here in the UAE, who regularly show up for Djokovic’s matches and last night, the atmosphere at times resembled a football derby.
Tournament director Salah Tahlak was not wrong when he called the match ‘El Clasico’ of tennis. It certainly sounded that way yesterday at the Aviation Club.
Nadal and Djokovic may need six hours to produce an epic. Federer and Djokovic achieved that in one hour and 24 minutes on Saturday night. It is a clinical, precise and technical rivalry like no other.
A Federer-Djokovic match also feels like the least predictable of all the ‘Big Four’ match-ups irrespective of surface, tournament or day.
While Nadal has the upper hand on Federer in most of their encounters, and Djokovic has been in better shape against Nadal – except in five sets on clay – it is very difficult to guess who will be the victor ahead of a Federer-Djokovic outing.
They’ve beaten each other on every surface, at any level tournament, and at no point did we get the sense that the rivalry has been completely dominated by one or the other.
Federer leads Djokovic 20-17 head-to-head and 15-13 on hard courts. On clay Federer leads 4-3 and on grass they are even at 1-1. A rivalry doesn’t get any closer than that.
Every time you wanna put Federer on the shelf…he does that….it’s kinda crazy….World No. 1 Djokovic goes down.
— Jason Gay (@jasonWSJ) February 28, 2015
Federer was asked to describe how he views his competition with Djokovic and the Swiss explained how the rivalry has evolved from being a “semi-final rivalry” since the days he was ranked No. 1 and Djokovic was No. 3 or No. 4 and eventually became one that features more finals on bigger stages.
“I think it’s really become a very nice rivalry,” Federer said last night. “I think we play very nice against each other, and it seems people like the way we play against each other, as well.
“I don’t think we have to adjust our games very much against each other, which I think is nice, as well. We can just play our game, and then the better man wins.”
An apt description from the greatest of all time. Indeed, yesterday, both were playing incredibly well but it was simply a matter of who performed better on that given day.
While the Nadal-Federer rivalry has been lop-sided and the Nadal-Djokovic one has periodically swayed from one side to another, Djokovic-Federer is a classic tale that hasn’t changed much over the past decade. There is something particularly alluring about a fierce unpredictable competition that does not wane.
