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For five hours and 14 minutes--an Australian Open record--Nadal and Verdasco not only played the best match of this tournament, they preached--loudly, boldly and repeatedly--the virtues of the modern baseline game. No ball is safe, no matter where it lands. What happens when Nadal crushes a forehand that bounces 15 feet outside the baseline? Verdasco returns it, with interest, down the line for a winner. When Verdasco smashes an overhead at Nadal's ankles? Nadal flicks his wrist, waits, and then whips a dipping forehand pass (Verdasco had to smile at his friend after that one, and Nadal smiled back). When, at deuce late in the second set, Verdasco hits a sidespin slice that curls into the doubles alley? Nadal, on the run, curls a forehand down the line, sliding to a stop and pumping his fist. Set point. Has a tennis court ever been so wide as it is in the modern game? It's no wonder you can't approach the net consistently these days. Oftentimes, the only approach shot good enough is one that goes for a winner anyway, or near so. Even when Nadal and Verdasco engaged in long rallies, they weren't rallies in the traditional sense of the word. Ivan Lendl and Mats Wilander used to rally. These guys murder--absolutely murder--the ball, unless they're in such bad position that they must slice (the backhand slices of both men were low and biting all night long), loop, or apply more spin to angle the ball so absurdly that it seems to come in sideways. From defense to offense and back again they went, relentlessly running each other from one doubles alley to the other. All night long, it took several shots that might ordinarily go for winners to win a point (as Verdasco put it, "With Rafa, you need to win the point three times, more than with all the others"). The scrambling and remarkable defense from both men often defied belief. One Spanish reporter, seated behind me, said after one of Nadal's galloping, sliding, arm-twisting, wrist-snapping forehand winners (right on the line, of course), "Rafa's going to explode." That was in the second set. Speaking of winners, Verdasco hit 95 of them, a remarkable sum against anyone, never mind against Nadal. Nadal hit 52 and--brace yourself--committed just 25 unforced errors to Verdasco's 76. Yes, 25 errors over five sets and five hours. He absorbed blow after blow, ace after ace, from a man playing far and away the best tennis of his life. He withstood an assault in the fourth-set tiebreaker (Verdasco, playing at full throttle, claimed the first six points) and survived another 54 minutes of tense tennis, as the backhand and forehand winners flew off Verdasco's racquet. Finally, after many hours of beating back break points (he saved 16 of 20 for the match) Verdasco cracked. He double faulted to give Nadal a 0-40 lead in the final game. Nadal, overcome by emotion and drained from having concentrated so intently for so long, said he began to cry. The tension was too much. Two points later, Verdasco double faulted again. It was the only sour note in a match of the finest quality. Nadal fell to his back, reminiscent of the Wimbledon final. "For sure I will have this match in my mind all my life," Verdasco said. Nadal has now played in six of the best matches of the last decade--two in Rome, against Guillermo Coria and then Roger Federer, one in Monte Carlo against Federer, two at Wimbledon against Federer, and this semifinal against Verdasco--and won all but one of them. On Sunday, he has a chance for one more miracle, a victory that would deny Federer from making history by tying Pete Sampras' record of 14 major titles. Nadal, speaking in Spanish, said he would like to see Federer win his 14th major--just as long as it doesn't happen against him on Sunday. Could he possibly have enough energy to win the title? If we were talking about anyone else, I would say no. Nadal, amazingly, just might. Read more sport in Tennis |
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