a Life Travelogue

Roger Federer meets Rafael Nadal in tomorrow’s Masters 1000 tournament in Madrid, Spain. This is significant on a few levels:

1. Federer’s not made it to the finals of a tournament yet this season (except the Australian Open), which is, like, an abnormally bizarre thing to say.
2. Nadal’s bidding to be the first player to win all three clay court Masters tourneys in the same season (he recently won in both Rome and Monte Carlo).
3. This is the last major tournament leading up to Roland Garros (or French Open) on May 25, which is the only Grand Slam played on crushed red brick. A win here for Federer will mean a huge boost in Paris next week.

Federer’s played Nadal in the finals at the French Open 3 years in a row, losing 3 times in a row, and it’s the only Slam he’s not yet achieved. Each year, Nadal’s beaten his rival more convincingly as his game improves and Federer’s appears mysteriously to erode. (At only 22, Nadal is already widely considered the greatest clay court player in the history of the game.) But King Fed’s confidence remains unshaken despite his worst season in memory: not only did he lose his #1 ranking but also his Wimbledon crown to the young Spaniard.

Fed’s not beaten Nadal on clay since 2007 in Hamburg, but it’d be great to see it happen again tomorrow. Fingers crossed!

Okey dokey, this is officially one of the coolest things I’ve seen. Ever.

Yes, please, fire the lot. Thank you.

Suddenly, I am transported back 15 years.