Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal: Rivals and, now, doubles partners

PRAGUE — In the back seat of a new van in an old city, a stubble-faced Rafael Nadal was laughing hard on my right and a stubble-faced Roger Federer was laughing harder on my left.

(From left) Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver during the ceremony at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic. Photo: Reuters

(From left) Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver during the ceremony at the Old Town Square in Prague, Czech Republic. Photo: Reuters

PRAGUE — In the back seat of a new van in an old city, a stubble-faced Rafael Nadal was laughing hard on my right and a stubble-faced Roger Federer was laughing harder on my left.

The topic was doubles, which Federer and Nadal will most likely play together in earnest for the first time at the inaugural Laver Cup this weekend.

Nadal first lobbied to play doubles with Federer in 2006.

“I made him wait,” Federer joked, with a baritone giggle. “When you make somebody wait, they appreciate it more, so that’s why he’s so excited.”

Nadal responded with his delightfully approximate English: “Good things wait. But I don’t know if that much wait is going to be for a good thing or a negative thing.”

Back across the van to Federer: “I just hope we are going to win. I hope we didn’t wait too long, because we’re too old now.”

Federer, 36, and Nadal, 31, have, of course, shared plenty of road and court in their careers.

They have played for charity: Raising funds for flood relief at the Australian Open in 2011. They have played for novelty: Competing against each other in the weird-but-true “Battle of Surfaces” in 2007 in Majorca, Spain, where one half of the court was red clay and the other half grass.

They have played for posterity: Facing each other 37 times in official matches during the last 13 years, including three times in 2017, their surprising season of mutual renaissance.

But until now, with the exception of a few games on the same side of the net in that Australian charity event in 2011, they have never been team-mates.

“Look, we are, I think, all our lives rivals, so to be together now is going to be something very special, I think unique,” Nadal said. “I think it’s going to be a great feeling.”

Nadal and Federer (or is that Federer and Nadal?) are the main attractions of Team Europe, which will face another six-man squad representing the rest of the world in the three-day Laver Cup, beginning on Friday (Sept 22).

The event will be played on a black, indoor hardcourt in a sold-out O2 Arena here. The new competition, which will be held every year except when there is a Summer Olympics, was inspired by golf’s Ryder Cup.

It is named for Rod Laver, who at age 79 has made the trip here from his home in Carlsbad, California. He is the only singles player to have completed two Grand Slams — winning all four major tournaments in the same calendar year (he did it in 1962 and 1969). He was on stage on Wednesday with the teams in a packed Old Town Square for a welcome ceremony here.

Like the Ryder Cup, which dates to 1927 and now pits Europe against the United States, the Laver Cup has captains: Bjorn Borg for Team Europe and John McEnroe for Team World. It will ultimately be Borg’s call if and when “Fedal” becomes a doubles pair.

“I think there’s a good chance,” Borg said.

Once in the quiet of the van, Federer and Nadal sounded more nervous about playing doubles than about beating Team World. Federer, who won an Olympic gold medal in doubles in 2008, has not played men’s doubles since 2015, when he went 0-3. Nadal won the Olympic gold medal last year with Marc Lopez but has played only one doubles tournament this season.

“Where do you play normally?” Nadal asked Federer, trying to figure out who might line up on which side of the court.

Federer said he had more often played the deuce court but added, “for me, Rafa decides what side he wants to play on.”

While Federer and Nadal traded quips and observations as the van rumbled over Prague’s cobblestones, Borg and his vice captain, Thomas Enqvist, sat quietly in the back row and took it all in.

Borg, the Nadal or Federer of his era, never had a chance to team up with fellow Europeans. There are legitimate questions and concerns about the Laver Cup, an event that Federer and his agent, Tony Godsick, essentially imposed on a sport that has long had an overstuffed schedule.

With Tennis Australia and the US Tennis Association supporting the Laver Cup, the event could also harden battle lines with the International Tennis Federation, which is trying to preserve and revamp the Davis Cup, the 117-year-old men’s team competition that is the ITF’s primary source of funding.

Federer and Godsick insist that they do not view the Laver Cup as a rival to the Davis Cup. But the Davis Cup semi-finals and World Group qualifying round were played just last weekend, and the game’s biggest stars did not take part.

Nadal, back at No 1 in the world rankings, and Federer, at No 2, did make it to Prague, though. It is all quite a mood swing from the start of the year, when both were coming back from lengthy injury lay-offs. Federer, in particular, was concerned about needing a wild card to even get into the Laver Cup, his own event.

“I believe we were a little bit lucky at the beginning of the season that we played well, and always the beginnings are tough after injuries,” Nadal said. “You need to win these kind of matches that change the confidence, change the feeling, and that’s what happened. The important thing is the body holds up.”

Federer said that the back problems that hampered him during the North American hardcourt season this summer were, for now, not an issue, and that he definitely needed a rest. This is not much of one.

He was practising in Prague less than two weeks after he lost in the quarter-finals of the US Open to Juan Martn del Potro, who pulled out of the Laver Cup because he felt he had not yet recovered (his absence further slims Team World’s already meagre chances).

But Nadal, who arrived in Prague little more than a week after winning the US Open, said he felt the Laver Cup, where matches will be best-of-three sets with a super tie-breaker instead of a full third set, was worth a quick turnaround.

“We are creating something big,” he said. “We are together in the same team, so it’s all about the personal energy and the personal feeling you have, and here we have the feeling we are getting in a place where we really want to play, because we are doing something exceptional, something that never happened. And I’m very excited, so it doesn’t matter if I’m tired, if I’m coming from the US Open or we’re playing for a long season.”

Nadal and Federer, both driven from within, are playing this well again in 2017 in part because of each other. Would they have achieved so much for so long without the other to provide motivation?

“In some ways I believe yes, and in some ways I believe no,” Federer said. “I believe that because of Rafa, maybe I achieved less, but at the same time, I feel like he made me a better player.”

Nadal was emphatic after winning the US Open that he did not use Federer’s achievements or Grand Slam title totals for incentive. But on Wednesday, in Federer’s presence, he was more nuanced.

“I have my personal motivation, but of course to have somebody in front of you, it is easier to see the things you need to improve,” Nadal said.

Federer interjected: “They uncover you. They undress you.”

“Exactly,” said Nadal, who leads their series, 23-14. “If you’re the best and you don’t see the things that other people are doing better than you, it’s difficult to go on court and understand exactly what you need to do to be better. Having somebody like Roger in front of me for so many years of course helped me to go on court and understand and let me practice with a different perspective on the things I have to do.”

This week, they can practise together and cheer for each other instead.

“I’m really looking forward to supporting Rafa, like, for real,” Federer said. “Like fist-pumping Rafa to win and if I could even help during the match, if I saw something or he saw something and he could tell me a little advice, that would be amazing.”

The van soon arrived at the hotel, and the leaders of Team Europe were soon walking through the front entrance and chatting: Nadal on the right, Federer on the left.

We’ll see where they end up on the doubles court, and in the history books. THE NEW YORK TIMES

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.