Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have played 40 times across 16 years in their legendary ATP Head2Head rivalry. But still today, 14 years on, their clash in the championship of the 2006 Internazionali BNL d’Italia remains one of their most memorable.

It was only the pair’s sixth meeting, but it was clear that Federer and Nadal were tennis’ titans. Federer first earned the No. 1 FedEx ATP Ranking more than two years before their Foro Italico battle, and Nadal took World No. 2 in July 2005. He held a 1,290-point buffer ahead of World No. 3 David Nalbandian the week of 2006 Rome.

Nadal had already proven to have at least some kryptonite to counter Federer’s aggressive, free-flowing game, winning four of their first five matches. The ever-improving lefty won 2005 Roland Garros — including a semi-final victory against Federer — and beat the Swiss to triumph at the 2006 Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters in four sets.

“I think I’m actually going to improve a lot by playing more against him, and I already feel like I have since he’s been around,” Federer said after his defeat in Monte Carlo. “The more I play him, the more I’ll also figure out his game and the easier it’s going to get for me. Maybe I’m too optimistic, but I really believe it.”

Uncovered: The Legendary Rivalry – Nadal vs. Federer

Federer got his chance to prove it on 14 May 2006, competing against Nadal on a hot Rome afternoon. He went for his shots, and was unafraid of being passed at the net, winning 64 of 84 net points.

The Swiss was in a winning position while leading 6-5 in the fifth set. Nadal hit his first double fault of the match to give Federer two championship points.

Triumph appeared even closer when Federer worked his way to neutral in the rally on his first opportunity, smacking a forehand down the middle of the court. However, he missed long.

“The first one I was more disappointed about because I was in a good position, and I didn’t want to go for the outright winner at all,” Federer said. “I just tried to play solid and with a lot of spin to his backhand, and long. I just couldn’t get quite over it in time, so that was a pity. I guess the first match point that cost me the match.”

Federer still had another chance, and he went for broke on the run with a missile-like forehand down the line, missing well wide.

“I think the second one was definitely rushed. I tried to hit a winner. Why not? I already had one match point, so I thought I might as well go for it a little bit,” Federer said. “I didn’t try to totally hit a winner, but tried to play aggressively and I was a little late on it.”

“I was lucky that when he had match points,” Nadal said. “He made a mistake with two forehands, one which was quite simple for him.”

The Best Of Roger vs. Rafa On Clay:

Federer also led 5/3 in the deciding tie-break. He missed a mid-court forehand that would have given him three consecutive match points. Instead, Nadal won four straight points and fell to his back after clinching his second Rome title with a 6-7(0), 7-6(5), 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5) win.

“I have won, but I could have lost. I’ve been down many times,” Nadal said. “For sure I played very well, but it was a very tough match. It was complicated.”

The clash remains the longest of their rivalry, lasting five hours and five minutes. Of the 40 matches they have played, it was the only one clinched in a deciding-set tie-break, and the only one in which the winner saved match point. Federer won 179 points to Nadal’s 174, marking the only occasion in their rivalry that the loser won more total points.

“It was very close from [the] start until the finish. The result obviously reflects that, too,” Federer said. “I came back well and in the end I should have won. He caught me right on the finish line… That’s all I could do, fight hard and try and play as well as I could. It was a pity in the end.”

Did You Know?
Nadal also beat Federer in their other Rome clash, which came in 2013. The Spaniard triumphed 6-1, 6-3. Nadal now owns a record nine titles at the Foro Italico, while Federer has never triumphed at the ATP Masters 1000 event.

“I think I’ve been well and truly set up here!”

Andy Murray and Manchester United football star Marcus Rashford recently teamed up on Zoom to surprise Debbie Thorberg, a community nurse from Scotland who works the night shift with the out-of-hours district nursing service. Thorberg joined what she thought was a Zoom call to discuss tennis with ATP staff, but was surprised to find Murray and Rashford thanking the nurse for her work as part of episode six of Tennis United.

The former World No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings may not have been her first choice for a dream Zoom call, though. Murray said he “was told you’re a big a Rafael Nadal fan” and she admitted to closely following the Spaniard.

“I’m so sorry. My husband does like you,” Thorberg said, laughing. “I love to watch you too, but I’m afraid it’s always been Rafa for me and it always will be.”

Thorberg also discussed the important and challenging work she’s currently engaged in during the pandemic. The United Kingdom has more than 236,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 33,998 related deaths as of 15 May, according to the BBC.

“We’re really busy at the moment because we’re going into care homes with a lot of, unfortunately, COVID-19 patients who are terminally ill and at the end of their lives,” Thorberg said. “It’s quite harrowing. At the moment, it’s really difficult.

“Our workload has quadrupled… A lot of care homes at the moment are stretched. They’re understaffed. Sometimes before coronavirus, if a patient was dying and the family couldn’t get in or they didn’t have a family, we’d have a care nurse sit with them. That’s just not possible at the moment. These people are basically dying alone. It’s very hard to be a part of that and very hard to watch.”

Thorberg is an avid tennis fan and has watched her idol Nadal in action at the Fever-Tree Championships. She’s also attended Wimbledon three times, most recently in 2018 as a surprise for her husband’s 60th birthday. He didn’t get the chance to see Murray play, but the couple took in one of Roger Federer’s matches.

“That’s probably better!” Murray joked.

Editor’s Note: ATPTour.com is resurfacing features to bring fans closer to their favourite players during the current suspension in tournament play. This story was originally published on 10 May 2016.

It was a star-studded affair on Monday night at the Foro Italico as Next Generation player Nick Kyrgios joined Italians Fabio Fognini, Andreas Seppi, Paolo Lorenzi, Marco Cecchinato, Filippo Volandri, Roberta Vinci, Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone in the Tennis With Stars charity event on Pietrangeli court.

The tennis stars were paired with football players from AS Roma in a tie-break tournament to raise money for the Roma Cares Foundation, which benefits the Sant’Eugidio community. 

Having won his first round at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia earlier in the day, Kyrgios teamed with AS Roma superstar Francesco Totti to reach the semi-finals of the charity event.

“It was unbelievable,” said Kyrgios, who wore Totti’s shirt for practice the following day. “Totti is obviously a god in Italy and a god in football, so it was a pleasure to play some points with him. It was a lot of fun.”

.@NickKyrgios is training with #Totti‘s shirt! The surprises never end here at #ibi16! #tennis #ATP @OfficialASRoma pic.twitter.com/4rDU2rI3oO

— Internazionali Bnl (@InteBNLdItalia) May 10, 2016

The winning team was Fognini, who had just suffered a disappointing first-round loss before the start of the charity match, and Alessandro Florenzi.  “At least I won something today and it was for a good cause,” said Italian No. 1 Fognini.

Pablo Carreno Busta owns four ATP Tour titles and reached a career-high No. 10 in the FedEx ATP Rankings after his run to the 2017 US Open semi-finals.

ATPTour.com looks at five things you should know about the 28-year-old.

1) He Enjoyed Huge Success At Lower Levels
From May 2011 to July 2015, Carreno Busta reached 11 finals on the ATP Challenger Tour. He won them all.

The Spaniard defeated Dominic Thiem and Roberto Bautista Agut in two of those championship matches to boost his position in the FedEx ATP Rankings, before his run came to an end in his 12th, and most recent, Challenger final appearance. As top seed and defending champion at the 2015 LVII Copa Sevilla, Carreno Busta lost in straight sets to Pedro Cachin.

At Futures level, Carreno Busta won seven consecutive titles in 2013 with 35 straight victories. At the 2013 Nitto ATP Finals, the Spaniard was awarded the Most Improved Player of the Year award.

2) His Idol Was Juan Carlos Ferrero
Growing up, Carreno Busta idolised former World No. 1 and countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero. The 28-year-old, who trains at the JC Ferrero Equelite Sport Academy in Alicante, recently shared a picture of himself and Ferrero during a trophy ceremony in 2004 on Instagram.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

2004… ? @juankiferri #idolo

A post shared by Pablo Carreño (@pablo_carreno_) on Apr 14, 2020 at 7:28am PDT

3) Grand Slam Success Came In 2017
Carreno Busta achieved the two best Grand Slam singles finishes of his career in 2017. At Roland Garros, the Gijon native overcame Top 15 stars Grigor Dimitrov and Milos Raonic to reach the quarter-finals. Later in the year, at the US Open, Carreno Busta went one step further.

The 26-year-old cruised through the draw in New York, beating Denis Shapovalov and Diego Schwartzman en route to his first Grand Slam singles semi-final. Despite losing in four sets to Kevin Anderson, Carreno Busta cracked the Top 10 in the FedEx ATP Rankings for the first time after the tournament.

4) He Supports His Local Football Club
Carreno Busta is a fan of Spanish football club Sporting de Gijon, which finished as runner-up in the 1978-’79 La Liga season. The Spaniard posts about the Segunda (second) Division side on his social media channels and occasionally attends matches.

Como no podía ser de otra forma, aquí estamos animando al @RealSporting #puxasporting #El12DeElMolinón pic.twitter.com/xOXZzHRu5l

— Pablo Carreño (@pablocarreno91) November 19, 2017

5) He Returned To The Winners’ Circle Last Year
At the 2019 Chengdu Open, Carreno Busta ended a two-year, four-month wait to lift his fourth ATP Tour trophy.

Competing at No. 63 in the FedEx ATP Rankings, the 6’2” right-hander overcame Radu Albot, Benoit Paire, Shapovalov and Cristian Garin to book a final meeting against Alexander Bublik. Carreno Busta withstood 31 aces during the championship match to earn a 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-6(3) victory after two hours and five minutes.

“I just tried to continue working hard because I know when you work and do as much as possible, normally you have the prize,” said Carreno Busta. “Now I am here with the trophy [after] winning my fourth ATP Tour title and for me it is the reason to continue fighting and playing this sport.”

All it takes is one shot to alter the course of a match.

Juan Martin del Potro, competing in only his third tournament back from a fractured right kneecap, held two match points against top seed Novak Djokovic in their 2019 Internazionali BNL d’Italia quarter-final. But with the Argentine serving at 6/4 in the second-set tie-break, he shanked a forehand and Djokovic hit a delicate drop shot winner in the next point. The Serbian seized the momentum and crawled back back to secure a 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4 victory that finished after midnight.

“I never lost faith I could come back to the match,” Djokovic said afterwards. “He missed a couple of crucial points in the tie-break. Also break point [in the] third set, quite easy forehand. That’s what happens. That’s sport. I’m just really pleased to overcome.”

The Serbian improved to 16-4 in his ATP Head2Head series with del Potro and maintained a flawless (4-0) record against him on clay. But their Rome clash was yet another thrilling chapter in a highly competitive rivalry. Seven of their past 10 matches have gone to a deciding set.

Their battle under the lights was also played in the competitive spirit that has made their matches must-see viewing. After del Potro hit an outrageous drop volley winner at 2-2 in the third set, Djokovic applauded the shot with and reached across the net to high-five the Argentine.

“Towards the end of the first set, he started hitting the ball really well from both corners,” Djokovic said. “Also on the backhand side [and] backhand down the line. He gave me a lot of trouble.”

Djokovic reached the final by outlasting Diego Schwartzman 6-3, 6-7(2), 6-3, but was denied a fifth title in Rome and his first since 2015. In the championship match against Rafael Nadal, the top seed ran out of steam after rain early in the week forced him to play four matches in 72 hours before facing the Spaniard. Nadal prevailed 6-0, 4-6, 6-1 and lifted the trophy at the Foro Italico for a ninth time.

Read the full Djokovic v Del Potro match report

Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah arrived at the 2018 Internazionali BNL d’Italia with a score they had been waiting to settle for a long time. They had 10 ATP Tour titles under their belt, but hadn’t won an ATP Masters 1000 tournament. Both players believed they were capable of winning bigger events.

“We had important moments at those events, but we came up short of winning,” Cabal told ATPTour.com.

Four months before playing in Rome, they fell in the Australian Open final (l. to Marach/Pavic). But if recent results were anything to go by, ending their big tournament drought in Rome seemed unlikely. They reached the quarter-finals in 2015, but lost their opening match in 2014 and 2016, and didn’t play in 2017. It was difficult to predict that the Colombian Power, as the duo is known, would be victorious that week in the Foro Italico, at least for those who were unaware of their love for competing there.

“We love Rome,” Farah explained. “We like going out and exploring the streets, slipping down an unknown alley, discovering hidden and unknown restaurants. We like walking and eating great food. We also play very well there. It suits us because we come into it in form at that point of the clay swing and Sebas and I are good on clay.”

“Rome is special for us,” Cabal added. “Even though we lost in the first round in the early years, we always played well there. Everything was in place for that to be the case. We love Italy. It’s one of our favourite countries. Rome has a unique atmosphere and the venue is special, the courts are spectacular and they are always full. That makes it even more special.”

Their feelings for the city helped them win their first big title together in 2018 Rome, when they took out top seeds Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo in the quarter-finals and then defeated Pablo Carreno Busta and Joao Sousa in the final. Cabal broke into the Top 10 of the FedEx ATP Doubles Rankings and Farah moved into the Top 15.

But the most important thing that came with the triumph was not their rankings rise. Farah reflected on that week as “the tournament that opened their eyes” and helped them understand their limitless potential.

“Rome is where everything exploded,” Cabal said. “Winning there was like getting the monkey off our back because we’d been coming up short in those types of tournaments. We had already won ATP 250 and ATP 500 titles. We thought that we were ready to win any tournament. But it wasn’t easy. And when we freed ourselves from that burden, we thought, ‘Now we need a Grand Slam.’”

To achieve their new goal, they needed a little more than a year. But they initially faced a variety of setbacks and posted a 10-6 record in the first quarter of 2019. Cabal also picked up a back injury at 2019 Monte Carlo and they only managed to win the title in Barcelona the following week because they started on Wednesday and he had enough time to recover.

At their next event in Madrid, Farah suffered a neck injury that did not improve before their opening match. They wouldn’t regain their confidence until returning to Rome to defend their title, when they produced a stunning performance that included an epic quarter-final win over Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan. Cabal played what he still refers to as one of the best points of his life during the clash.

“That was the most difficult match we played in Rome,” Farah said. “We saved match points, and we were down 2/7 in the Match Tie-break.“

The Colombians won again in Rome after producing a stunning display in the final against Raven Klassen and Michael Venus. It was their ninth consecutive victory at the tournament.

“We played unbelievably… We were unstoppable,” Farah recalled.

It is not only because of those two titles that Rome has become unforgettable for the Colombians. They have also had some surreal moments while playing there.

“In 2018, my racquet broke into two pieces when returning against Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares. A cat ran onto the court against Kubot and Melo, and Sebas hit me with the ball in our first round against Jurgen Melzer and Robin Haase,” Farah said. ”Last year, I brought my dog Taco, a miniature Australian sheep dog who was four or five months old, on court to celebrate.”

The pair have not slowed down since then. They earned their first two Grand Slam titles last year at Wimbledon and the US Open en route to clinching the year-end No. 1 spot for the first time.

Andy Murray and Nick Kyrgios are going on Instagram live Saturday at 3 p.m. BST. From their fun matches to off-court bantering, this is one conversation you won’t want to miss.

SATURDAY – UK 3pm / Australian 12 AM @andy_murray and I are gonna Instagram live and have a fair bit to talk about, whos gonna tune in?

— Nicholas Kyrgios (@NickKyrgios) May 10, 2020

“When he’s mentally engaged in the matches he’s brilliant for tennis because he has an exciting game, a big personality and he’s different,” Murray told ATPTour.com last year of Kyrgios. “People enjoy watching that. I enjoy watching that. His match with Rafa at Wimbledon [in 2019] was one of the best matches of the tournament. That’s really good for tennis.

“As someone who knows him well, I like him. I just want to see him do that all of the time.”

Former World No. 1 Murray, who has always shown Kyrgios support, leads their ATP Head2Head series 5-1.

Arrows versus boomerangs.

We tend to think of the serve as like shooting an arrow. A weapon and a target. A one-way trip. It’s much better to strategically visualise the serve as a boomerang and be prepared for the ball returning back to you where it started its journey: back on your racquet.

An Infosys ATP Beyond The Numbers analysis of first and second-serve returns made from 2018-2020 at ATP Tour events on Hawk Eye courts identifies Gael Monfils as the clear leader in putting first serves back in play and Daniil Medvedev topping the list returning second serves back into the court. The data set includes players that have competed in a minimum of 30 matches on Hawk Eye courts from 2018-2020.

1st Serve Returns Made

Monfils was the only player that was able to put more than three out of four first serves back in the court, making 75.37 per cent from 56 matches. Monfils typically bends over at 90 degrees from his waist as the server bounces the ball ready to deliver his powerful blow. Getting his eye level down to where contact will typically be made in a few seconds time may be a hidden key to his success. The Frenchman then uses a short, abbreviated swing to make contact, essentially rebounding, or “boomeranging” the server’s power right back at him.

The leading 10 players in the data set that put the most first serves back in the court were: 

1. Gael Monfils = 75.37%
2. Rafael Nadal = 72.83%
3. Daniil Medvedev = 72.29%
4. Roger Federer = 72.12%
5. Alexander Zverev = 70.33%
6. Taylor Fritz = 70.32%
7. Fernando Verdasco = 69.99%
8. Stan Wawrinka = 69.91%
9. David Goffin = 69.53%
10. Benoit Paire = 68.89%

Overall, all players in the data set combined to average putting 67.4 per cent of first serves back in play. A good way to visualise the behavior of the first serve is that one of three is an arrow (does not return), while two out of three are a boomerang, coming back into the court for the server to hit another shot.

2nd Serve Returns Made

Daniil Medvedev was third on the list with first serves made and elevates to the top spot with second serves made at 88.98 per cent from 65 matches. The 24-year-old Russian typically likes to stay deep in the court to return both first and second serves, which lets the ball slow down to a more manageable pace and provides more time to get prepared for the return.

The leading 10 players in the data set that put the most second serves back in the court were:

1. Daniil Medvedev = 88.98%
2. Roberto Bautista Agut = 88.82%
3. Filip Krajinovic = 87.41%
4. Rafael Nadal = 87.12%
5. Novak Djokovic = 87.10%
6. Alexander Zverev = 86.92%
7. Gael Monfils = 86.84%
8. Milos Raonic = 86.29%
9. Fernando Verdasco = 85.83%
10. Alex de Minaur = 85.78%

Overall, all players in the data set combined to average putting 83.6 per cent of second serves back in play. Rounding those numbers to eight boomerangs and two arrows clearly shows that the serve is not a shot that exists primarily in isolation, and should be practised as one strategic unit with the first shot after the serve, commonly known as the Serve +1.

Practice courts should be filled with two-shot combination drills, hitting a serve and then a Serve +1 shot. After all, that’s what best mirrors the reality of the match court.

After 17 years on Tour, Novak Djokovic believes that his most memorable accomplishments are still to come.

The World No. 1 in the FedEx ATP Rankings sat down for a feature profile on ‘In Depth with Graham Bensinger’ that was released this week. Djokovic discussed his 2020 form, including a flawless 18-0 record, and candidly admitted his on-court objectives that could change the conversation about his place in tennis history.

“I think that I still have things to do here in this sport. I believe that I can win the most Slams and break the record for [most weeks] at No. 1. Those are definitely my clear goals,” Djokovic said. “But at the same time, they’re not the only thing that motivates me… What fuels me every day is something more related to my growth personally.”

With 17 Grand Slam titles, Djokovic is third on the all-time list and within striking distance of Rafael Nadal (19) and Roger Federer (20). He’s also third on the all-time list for most weeks at No. 1 (282), trailing Pete Sampras (286) and Federer (310). [Editor’s note: The FedEx ATP Rankings are currently frozen due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Djokovic is not adding weeks onto his tally.]

Djokovic’s motivation is a stark contrast from where he found himself at the beginning of 2018. His wife, Jelena, revealed that the Serbian was mentally worn down from a two-year battle with a right elbow injury, which required surgery that February. After rushing back to action following the procedure and suffering opening-round exits in Indian Wells and Miami, he called his family together and said that he was hanging up his racquets.

“He just gathered all of us and said, ‘You know, guys, I’m done… I don’t know if I’m stopping for six months, a year or forever,” Jelena recalled. “Then we went on a holiday… I love tennis and kept taking the kids with me to play. He showed up [to the court] on the third or fourth day and saw how much fun were were having… After that, he started coming with us to play every day.

“On the last day, he took the shoes and properly dressed himself and said, ‘I’m going to call Marian [Vajda] and ask him to be my coach again.’ He needs to drop completely down [and] lose everything so he can start to build another tower. And it’s an amazing tower.”

The World No. 1 turns 33 on 22 May, but isn’t in a rush to accomplish his two main goals. He believes that time is on his side and that playing until age 40 isn’t out of the question.

“I don’t believe in limits. I definitely want to go for a long time… But I’m aware that the amount of tournaments I’m playing is going to decrease very soon,” Djokovic said. “I will not be able to play at this intensity, with this many tournaments and this much traveling, for a long time. I might be playing at 40, but then there will probably be a focus on the biggest tournaments and the tournaments that mean the most to me.”