Djokovic's Steady Nerve Enough to Top Roger

Beating Roger Federer these days is much like beating Manchester United. Pull it off and you are bound to hit the headlines. Novak Djokovic triumphed against Roger Federer for the first time in a Grand Slam event since the 2008 Australian Open, the Serbs' last Slam Final, and his last Slam win. It may be auspicious for the world number three, or it may mean nothing, as he will have his work cut out against Rafael Nadal, who will be aiming to win his third Grand Slam of 2010, and become only the fourth player in the Open Era to win all four majors, joining Rod Laver, Andre Agassi and of course, Federer.

The match itself defied any master narrative, swinging seemingly decisively one way before shifting straight back. Indeed, when Federer set up two match points in the fifth set, it all looked familiar to regular tennis-watchers, before Djokovic played two gutsy points to get back to deuce.

Back at 5-5 and on Federer's serve, the Serb broke decisively, and then saved a break point of his own while serving for the match. The world number two then saw a succession of forehands sail long, handing Djojovic the fifth set 7-5.

In six previous seasons Federer has not failed to make two Grand Slam finals in a calender year, and prior to this year's French Open, had reached the past eight finals at all four majors, winning four of them, but losing three to Nadal. The match also ended his run of six US Open finals, including five titles before being beaten by Juan Martin Del Potro this time last year.

The match also ended a streak of three consecutive times that Federer had dumped Djokovic out of the US Open. In 2007 Federer beat the Serb in his first Grand Slam final appearance, then in 2008 and 2009 the Swiss triumphed in the Semi-Finals of both years.

For Djokovic the win salvaged something from an immensely frustrating season. Beaten by Tsonga in the Quarter Finals of the Australian Open in a re-match of the 2008 Final, he was then put out of the French by Jurgen Melzter, again in the Quarters, despite holding a two sets to love advantage in the match. Then he was outclassed by Tomas Berdych in the Wimbledon semi-finals, and another Semi-Final defeat to Federer at Flushing Meadows would have compounded the Serb's woes.

The first four sets were topsy-turvy encounters with the 16-time Grand Slam winner taking the first and third sets 7-5, with the Serb picking up the second and fourth 6-1 and 6-2, breaking Federer twice in both sets. Whatever is to blame for Federer's recent performances, at times he seems a shadow of his former self, and on the Arthur Ashe court, where he has so often excelled, he racked up more unforced errors than winners. Where he showed entire matches packed with flair and brilliance, his game flickered into life invarably, and only on the odd point did he display the sort of tennis that has dominated the sport for the past six years.

He would occasionally step in and strike the ball imperiously cross-court for a clear winner, but more often than not his opponent displayed far clearer aggression, hurrying Federer's forehand, and forcing him to either net, or shoot the ball long. The match might have headed away from the Serb after the fourth set, as the cat-and-mouse tennis suited the former world number one by far.

With far less hesitancy Djokovic stepped up the aggression in the fourth, and kept a steady nerve to triumph in a tight fifth set that could very easily have gone either way. The Serb's father, hard to miss with his son's visage emblazoned on his t-shirt, and those in the world number three's camp were sent into raptures by the win. Nadal provide a far sterner test today.

Can you bet against this man? The answer is no

Roger Federer's most controversial statement this week seems to be the fact that he has grown tired with pink and will most probably sport blue in the coming US Open at Flushing Meadows, Queens- New York.

Federer, already on 16 grand slam titles, recently said he would like to reach 20, and would surely love to beat Nadal on the way to another French Open or Wimbledon title. Despite only winning his second title of the season last week at Cincinnati, the World Number Two can take heart, that the other victory was at the Australian Open. Heck Roger, why not shoot for Margeret Court's 24.

Just as Federer failed at overtaking Jimmy Conners and Pete Sampras to stand alone on six US Open titles in 2009, losing to the spirited Argentine, Juan Martin Del Potro, he succumbed to Berdych this year, aiming to equal Sampras' seven Wimbledon titles. This year he will have another chance, and there will be no Argentinian to scare the willies out of him.

He has not faced his foe Nadal since the final of the Madrid Open, the only time the two have met in 2010. If the two meet again at Flushing Meadows it will be in the final, and Federer, who has won five titles here, will feel the favourite.

Nadal has looked jaded, again, as he always seems to do when we reach this stage of the season, possibly a result of his athletic style of tennis, and the wear and tear on his body. Yet even Federer must wonder how his body will cope with a seven match two-week tournament. He visibly wilted against Robin Soderling in Paris, then looked out of it at times against Tomas Berdych at SW19.

Murray lost to Mardy Fish, but will probably not mind too much, considering the American did push Federer to the limit in the Cincinnati finals. The Brit looked angry throughout the encounter, and made a shoot at the tournament organisers after his previous round match, citing the fact that he had played early afternoon in each of his last six matches (including the ones in Toronto).

Wilting in the fierce Cincinnati weather, with the intensity of the sun matched only by Murray's temper, he asked the umpire whether he had seen a net court when he intimated that he had not heard one. When he replied that he hadn't, Murray added "You haven't seen much today have you," which the umpire might not have heard, but the television microphones certainly did. And in case you missed it, Murray has yet to win a Grand Slam, foiled twice in the finals by....Federer.

The Swiss has niggling injury concerns of his own:- was his five set thriller with Alejandro Falla in the first round at Wimbledon the cause or consequence of his back and leg injuries? How much of his thigh injury was responsible for his loss to Lleyton Hewitt in Halle before Wimbledon? When he is seriously pushed in the next two weeks, will his body, and consequently his game crumble?

In his quarter of the draw, are names such as Hewitt (possible third round opponent), Jurgen Meltzer and Juan Carlos Ferrera (fourth round), and a possible quarter final against Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, Croat Maran Cilic or Soderling.

Murray meanwhile will have Berdych, Stanislas Wawrinka, Sam Querrey and Nicholas Almaggro to worry about in his quarter, and will have to run the gauntlet in most of his matches to be in with a chance of ending one of the most extraordinary fallow runs in sporting history.

But for Federer, who won five titles in a row at Flushing Meadows before being beaten last year, will still go in clear favourite.

They just will not go away: the French Open and Rafael Nadal

Even as every time Roger Federer steps onto a tennis court he enshrines himself further and further into tennis immortality, at the same he becomes less and less legendary. This may be a strange observation to make of a player who until today had gone six years without losing before the semi-final stage in a Grand Slam. Before this years' French he had reached eight straight Grand Slam finals, dating back to his defeat at the hands of Novak Djokovic in the 2008 Australian Open.

Soderling beat the world number one for the first time in his career, having been defeated in their twelve previous meetings, including a comprehensive beating in last year's final in Paris. After his victory, he said 'As soon as I got here, immediately I felt confidence. I've played better and better every match and today I played really well. It cannot be much better. It's great to play on this court and it's for sure my favourite grand slam. To play the world number one on this court, it couldn't be better.' He will play Tomas Berdych, Andy Murray's conqueror, for a place in the final.

Soderling's performance was all the greater as it was delivered in front of a rather hostile Parisian crowd that has not seen a French Open final without Federer in it since 2005, when he was knocked out in the semis by, you guessed it, Rafael Nadal. This was their third meeting, and first of eight meetings in Grand Slam events. And the last time Federer was knocked out of a grand slam before the semi-final stage was in 2004, when Brazilian and champion grunter Gustavo Kuerton beat him in straight sets in the third round of the French, a run of twenty-three straight semi-finals. Even in defeat, the size of the Swiss' achievement looks even greater.

If there are any blots on Federer's copy book, it seems clear what they are, Rafael Nadal, and Roland Garros. Sometimes even both at once. If not for them, we might be calling him the best, rather than one of the best. Nadal has been a perennial thorn in Federer's side, as the Swiss has lost fourteen of their twenty-one meetings, losing the latest in this year's Madrid Open final. Five of those have come in Grand Slam finals. Nadal has won twelve of their seventeen meetings in finals, six out of eight in Grand Slams, five out of seven in Grand Slam finals, and ten out of twelve on clay.

This would mean that Federer has the edge when the two play on a surface other than clay, with five wins out of nine on hard courts and grass. In the Open Era Federer holds the record for most consecutive wins on grass (65) and hard courts (56), with Nadal having the record on clay (81). Perhaps Federer has simply had the misfortune to play at the same time as one of the greatest players on clay, ever.

This mode of reasoning punishes Federer for not winning his title by beating Nadal, and at the same praises the Spaniard's achievement, even when his record looks a lot more ordinary if we ignore his four French Open victories. But the fact is Nadal was superior on clay, Federer on grass. After Nadal lost two straight Wimbledon finals to the Swiss, he worked on his game until he emerged victorious in the final to beat all finals, emerging from a five-set thriller as the 2008 Wimbledon Champion. Federer might have finally captured the elusive French Open title, and done what only Andre Agassi and Rod Laver have done in the Open Era, but he did it without going through Nadal, who had been knocked out by Soderling, in part down to tendinitis in both knees, a problem that kept him from defending his Wimbledon title a month later.

Some will say this is far too harsh on the man who has won sixteen Grand Slam titles in the space of six and a half years. His struggles at Roland Garros look tiny compared to those of Pete Samprasa titan in is own era, but still a man who struggled whilst playing on clay. Sampras managed to get past the third round just four times, and never made a final. He is still one of only three players to win all four slams in the Open Era along with Laver and Agassi.

Until Federer does indeed beat Nadal at the French, a chance he may never get again, questions will remain unanswered.