Couch Umpire
Louie
Yinette PerezRafael Nadal and Roger Federer in 1-2 punch.
June 10th 2006 05:43
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal face each other in the finals of Roland Garros on Sunday.
Rafael leads Roger in the head-to-head, with the Spanish teenager beating Roger in the last 3 matches on clay.
Whilst Rafael looks to defend his title, the first time since Gustavo Kuerton in 2002, Roger looks to be the first man since Rod Laver to win the Grand Slam, currently holding all of Wimbledon, US Open, and Australian Open Titles. This is the first time Roger is in a French Open final.
It was almost not going to be a 1-2 match, with Roger's semi-final opponent David Nalbandian winning the first set 6-3 and breaking Roger's serve early in the second set. It would have been a shock, one-sided affair but Roger broke back and broke again to level the score with 1 set each. Roger was leading 5-2 in the third set when David retired from the match. Nalbandian said he had sustained an abdominal injury in his quarterfinals match but had hoped it would have improved by the start of the match yesterday.
Rafael beat 4th seed Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(7) in two hours, 49 minutes. He extends his streak to 59 on clay and 23-0 on clay this year.
*photo courtesy of www.ATPtennis.com
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