It's Been Too Long! Fed and Rafa to Meet in Madrid Finals

I'll be honest, at one point I thought we may never see another Federer/Nadal final AGAIN. I mean, it was a pretty reasonable thought. Rafa's knees and Fed's inconsistency outside the majors and those other guys, like Murray and Nole and DelPo. But finally, every tennis fan got their wish when both Rafa and Roger advanced to the finals in Madrid, marking what will be their first meeting since the finals here last year. 1 year! Let's hope it doesn't take that long again.

Anyways...

Nadal got off to an extremely slow start, being broken in his first 3 games and losing the opening set to fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro, who was firing on all cylinders. but Nadal proved why he's the world's best clay-courter, charging back to easily win the next two sets and the match, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2. The win improves Rafa's 2010 record on the clay to 14-0, and he will be vying for his 3rd victory in 4 weeks in Sunday's final, telling the press that this year has been "nearly perfect."

More so than we were with Rafa, we were worried that Roger wouldn't complete his half of the "Fedal" equation. And truthfully, at times, I doubted it would happen, considering how stellar of a season David Ferrer has been having and how unstellar the Swiss has been. BUT, Federer prevailed, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 to reach his FIRST final since Australia.

"After playing here last year you figured, maybe the French, Wimbledon or down the stretch in America at the latest we’ll face off again, but it just never ended up happening,” said the world number 1. “It shows how incredible our last few years have been and I think it’s exciting for tennis and for us obviously that we can face off again.”

In last year's Madrid Open final, Federer beat Nadal 6-4, 6-4 and then went on to win in Roland Garros.