Industrious Nadal sees revision of rivalry at the summit

Rafael Nadal knows a winner when he sees one. After all, he has crunched enough from his rackets down the years.

In Jose Mourinho, manager of his beloved Real Madrid, the 26-year-old Spaniard draws inspiration from a kindred spirit: a prolific hunter-gatherer of trophies.

Two men at the height of their professions, they have a reciprocal appreciation of each other’s achievements.

While long-time rival Roger Federer plays tennis much in the manner Barcelona charm and entertain on the football field, Nadal is a get-the-job-done man, much like Mourinho, for whom artistry comes a distant second to success through industry.

Madrid secured the Spanish league title with a record haul of 100 points last month, finishing effectively three wins clear of a Barcelona team who remain among the wonders of the modern sporting world.

Nadal, such an on-court fighter, says the Portuguese manager has “brought a new competitive spirit” to Madrid.

It is no surprise to learn the pair get along.

Perhaps it was more than mere coincidence, too, that Nadal meticulously put his tennis game back in order while his favoured football team inched towards the climax of a terrific Primera Division campaign.

The spark in Nadal had ebbed away towards the end of 2011, a year dominated in the most unexpected fashion by Novak Djokovic, the Serbian who began ranked No 3 but ended established as No 1, the position he first reached the day after brilliantly toppling Nadal in the Wimbledon final.

Djokovic, a year Nadal’s junior, won six out of six tussles with Nadal in 2011: four prior to Wimbledon, then the final at the All England Club and finally their meeting to decide the destiny of the US Open title.

By the time a seventh successive Djokovic triumph over Nadal arrived at the Australian Open at the start of 2012, it was becoming mentally difficult for the man from Majorca.

Nadal lost the most epic of title matches at Melbourne Park, one which lasted a grand-slam final record of five hours and 53 minutes. Being part of that milestone was no consolation.

Yet over the course of Djokovic’s dominant period, Nadal was telling himself such inspired form could not last.

“My experience says this level is not forever,” said Nadal after the Wimbledon final. I’m going to be...waiting for my moment.”

As Nadal returns to Wimbledon this year, that old spark is back after three successive victories in finals against Djokovic, on the clay of Monte Carlo, Rome and Roland Garros, where with his seventh French Open title he surpassed a record he shared with Bjorn Borg.

He explained after clinching the French title how during the winter all his focus had been on being champion in Paris again, knowing that would set him up for the second half of the campaign.

He added: “I also know that my season is going to be good moving on, because I’m in great shape, but I’m very pragmatic, and I need to prepare for the others.”

Federer fell in the Roland Garros semi-finals to Djokovic, and does not need telling his last grand slam title came at the beginning of 2010; the last of his six Wimbledons in 2009, the year when defending champion Nadal was absent through injury.

Until Djokovic’s remarkable improvement, it seemed the autumn of Federer’s career would be defined by grand slam finals against Nadal.

They still go head to head frequently, but the meetings of the world No 2 and No 3 are coming in fewer finals than before.

Federer thrashed Nadal for the loss of just three games at the O2 in London last autumn, but in the most meaningful tussles – those in the grand slams – the record shows Spain’s top man holds an 8-2 winning margin over the Swiss.

Those two wins for Federer came in Wimbledon finals, in 2006 and 2007, before Nadal triumphed in their 2008 twilight finish.

We wait for a fourth Wimbledon match-up.

Federer left Paris behind for a grass-court season he has been relishing more than any other in his career.

Not only does he again have the target of a seventh Wimbledon title, which would see him tie Pete Sampras’s record, but the Olympic Games tennis is coming to SW19.

A gold medal in singles to add to his doubles gold from Beijing four years ago is the objective for the 16-time grand slam winner, who turns 31 in August and will presumably never have another chance.

“As you can imagine with the history I have at Wimbledon, it’s going to be super-exciting,” Federer said in late March. “I carried the flag twice for Switzerland before.

“The first one in Sydney was just a dream come true to be part of. I met my wife over there.

“So every Olympic Games there was something very special about it.

“And obviously winning Olympic gold in Beijing four years ago in the doubles was something extraordinary.

“If I’m playing well, I know I’ll have a shot for the title.”

Trouble is, Nadal and Djokovic have an eye for Games gold too.

To counter those detractors who think he is past it, Federer found an ally just last week in Tim Henman, who he beat in the Briton’s sixth and last grand slam semi-final at Flushing Meadows in 2004.

With adverse weather forecast for the coming fortnight, there is a chance the retractable roof on Centre Court may turn the show court into an indoor arena.

And as he showed in London and Paris in the winter, Federer is back to his peerless self when it comes to indoor matches.

Henman said: “If he wins another grand slam – and I believe he will – then I would expect him to do it at Wimbledon or the US Open.

“The surface in New York is actually faster, but the nature of the movement on a grass court means it is a difficult place to defend. Federer doesn’t really do much defending because his style is so aggressive.

“We saw him lose to Novak Djokovic in Paris in very unhelpful, windy conditions, which suited Djokovic’s attritional approach. You have to play with a far greater margin for error when it’s windy.

“You can’t aim as close to the lines. Certainly on a clay court with a slightly irregular bounce you can’t take the ball so early.

“But I’d like to see Roger play Novak under the Wimbledon roof.

“I think that might produce a different result, because right now, he is the best indoor player in the world.”

As revered as he is on the grass courts of Wimbledon – be they covered or exposed to the elements – the question of whether he strikes fear into the rest of the field gains its answer from last year’s quarter-final tussle with Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in which he was beaten.

Federer remains a mighty scalp to take, but while a triumph for the Swiss star at Wimbledon or the Olympics might be more realistic than, say, Andy Murray prevailing at either, with Nadal and Djokovic consistently carving up the big prizes between them it requires a leap of faith to believe it can happen.

Nadal, like Mourinho and his attempts to take Madrid beyond Barcelona’s level, has moved on from seeing his career through the prism of a once pivotal rivalry.