Rafael Nadal and Kevin Anderson will be going head-to-head for the fifth time in their careers when they battle for the U.S. Open title on Sunday.
All four of their previous encounters have gone Nadal’s way, and he is 3-0 against Anderson on hard courts. The Spaniard is a commanding 9-1 in total sets, dropping only one in a 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-2 victory at the Paris Masters in 2015. Their only Grand Slam showdown came at the 2015 Australian Open, where Nadal cruised 7-5, 6-1, 6-4. A similarly straightforward affair was the result when the two veterans most recently collided on the red clay of Barcelona this spring, with the current world No. 1 getting the job done 6-3, 6-4.
Nadal and Anderson also faced each other way back at the 1998 Under 12 Junior Masters in Stuttgart, Germany. Prior to their Barcelona contest, Anderson’s wife posted this gem on Twitter.
Wouldn't be an #Anderson – #Nadal matchup if we didn't pass around the cutest photo of all time. Looking forward to the @bcnopenbs today! 🤗 pic.twitter.com/h8zLjaYhK3
— Kelsey Anderson (@KelseyOAnderson) April 27, 2017
Almost 20 years later, Nadal is still going strong at 31 years old. In fact, that is an understatement. He is turning in one of his best-ever seasons, with three major final appearances–including this one–and a 10th title at the French Open. Nadal is well on his way to the year-end No. 1 ranking especially if he triumphs on Sunday. Although the 15-time slam champion predictably cooled off after leaving Roland Garros, he is back on track this fortnight with mostly routine defeats of Dusan Lajovic, Taro Daniel, Leonardo Mayer, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Andrey Rublev, and Juan Martin Del Potro.
Anderson has also avoided any five-set drama while taking out J.C. Aragone, Ernests Gulbis, Borna Coric, Paolo Lorenzi, Sam Querrey, and Pablo Carreno Busta. The 32nd-ranked South African did not lose serve a single time through three rounds before getting broken twice by Lorenzi, once by Querrey, and twice by Carreno Busta. This is Anderson’s first-ever appearance in a major final and he had never previously advanced to a semifinal.
“He’s a huge player with an unbelievable serve,” Nadal said of his upcoming adversary. “He had some injuries, so he’s a big example for the kids and for the rest of the tour; he was able to be back and play his best tennis now. I’m happy for him, because I’ve known him since we were 12 years old. It’s great to see him in the final of one of the most important tournaments of the year.”
“Nadal is one of the greatest competitors in sports, period,” Anderson commented. “He’s an amazing fighter. He really controls the court well. I really need to be dominant and control proceedings as much as possible because if you let him do it, it’s very difficult.”
Nobody this fortnight has been able to produce a potent enough combination of offense and consistency to trouble Nadal for more than a set. Anderson has the kind of game that can do it, but he too has never been able to accomplish the feat. It is an especially difficult task, of course, in a Grand Slam championship match.
Nadal, who has been in this situation on 22 previous occasions, should have slam title No. 16 coming his way.
Pick: Nadal in 3
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Nadal seems to have a thing for dropping the opening set in this tournament, but I doubt that’ll happen in a GS final against Anderson. Even if the #1 has a really off day, I’m not convinced Anderson can take advantage. For the sake of the game, it’d be nice if there’s at least a spectacle. For Anderson’s sake, I hope he brings his best so that he doesn’t lose and feel like he left something on the court. Nadal? Well, no matter who you are, you can never get ahead of yourself until you’ve won the last point (and I’m sure Rafa won’t), but it’s hard to see this being very competitive.
Good luck to the Rafa fans. If he wins it he deserves it, he’s had a very good year.
Nadal in 3
Nadal in three
Even though the top players offense is at another level, its their defense that really separates them from the lower ranked players. even if Anderson played lights-out tennis for 3 straight sets, Nadal’s return of serve and defdense is that good and intense in these types of matches that the chances of Anderson snatching a set is in 0-5% probability range. I hope Anderson plays the match of his life and makes this a contest but the most likely result is pretty obvious.
Nadal in 3
Rafa in 3
Rafa will slip somewhere. Rafa in 4
fsutomahawk, are you going to throw a banana peel under Nadal to slip? Ha,ha,ha…
Nadal will mostly slip in the 1st set (like he has done in all his matches @Flushing Meadows) and then come on strong to win the next 3 sets…and win the USO Title!
Rafa wins in 3 or 4
BB = Nadal ML,-1,-2,-3,-4 (or more in LB)
Nadal in 3, what a year! Number one, 8 finals, probably 2 grand slams, three grand slam final appearances, 2 masters 1000’s and 1 500! It’s been amazing now to secure the US Open title and then end the year number one!
Yes, win or lose – what a year for Rafa! Improbably, It seemed to be Roger’s year, where he would finally cement his GOAT status. But if Rafa wins tomorrow he definitely had a better slam season than Roger and the GOAT narrative becomes a lot less clear cut.
And it’s also crazy that the impact of the young guns was marginal at the slams. All majors will have been won by a guy over 30, and Cilic who isn’t exactly a young gun anymore, was the youngest slam finalist and the only finalist under 30.
I wish Rafael Nadal Parera the very best, he deserves it.
I also want to congratulate Kevin Anderson for reaching his 1st Grand Slam final, i know he has been dreaming about this day lot and dreams do come true.
Kevin is not getting any younger and people always regret lost opportunities so…
Enjoy the points
https://youtu.be/fhmzmh1W_po
His win against delPo was vintage Rafa at his very best. Short of a catastrophic disaster he will lift the trophy on Sunday. This is a fit, injury-free Rafa brimming with confidence. Slam No.16 beckons.
Rafa in 3
I wake up to see an FB notificatio where a Djokovic fan is trying to ruin my status by commenting that Rafa will win the event without facing a top 25 player!!!! Seriously?! Do people have zero sense of gauging Nadal’s level of play and how ot would up against the holy members of the TOP 25 they are referring to?! Delpo is way better than most top 25 anyway. The way Nadal was playing, he would have defeated ANYONEZ in the world.
I just hope Rafa can stay calm and put Anderson away.
Vamos rafa get no.16 !!
Well, with the exception of Delpo Rafa had an exceptionally easy path into the final and he didn’t have to face a player with the pedigree of Kyrgios or Dimitrov. Therefore he definitely had a certain amount of luck and could gather steam with each match. That said, there was nothing lucky about his win yesterday. He played extremely well after he had made some clever adjustments. A subpar Fed knew why he wanted Delpo trying his luck with Rafa, lol! He probably also knew that Delpo’s chances were slim at best.
Nadal should win this match but i don’t think he can do it in 3 sets.
If you believe he can win in 3 sets please don’t answer this question.
1) Between 4 & 5 sets, which set do you believe Rafito can win in?
2) Can you give a reason or reasons for your pick?
If you can’t give a reason that’s OK, just pick a set.
Haha. As it was noticed by many, Rafa has a thing to lose the first set, could be due to a poor start, and that’s okay with me as long as he is winning at the end so, aside from that, no other reason I can think of.
Rafito in 4 (if that helps to amend your broken heart LOL)
No more slow starts. The beast has been unleashed now. Rafa in 3 sets
Well Djoko fans forget last year he was given 2 walkovers and one half match and made to reach the final and still lost to Stan..
Didnt Fed in 2006 AO get the same cusy draw where he almost played no one of repute..
Rafas draw was tough and stacked with Berdych, Dimitrov, Federer , it is not his fault if none made it to face him. He can play only who is in front of him.
Rafa for each of his slam win has had to beat Djoko, Fed, Murray (many times 2 of them) except 2010 RG, 2017 RG and 2017 USO(if he wins)…that’s 12 out of 15 slams…and most times at their peak …
Exactly Sanju, the big four guys have their fair share of easy draws. Djoko’s last USO was a joke, Fed had withdrawals too during one or two of his slams.
Rafa had Berdych, Dimi in his path not unlike Fed’s Wimbledon; it’s just that they didn’t make it to face Rafa. Goffin/Thiem/Fed too. Murray withdrawn, Cilic was beaten by Schwarzman, and so we had Anderson in the final, not Rafa’s fault. Delpo and Anderson played their best to reach the later stages to meet Rafa, other top players didn’t, again not Rafa’s fault.
There’s an interesting article in Heavy Topspin that talked about cakewalk draws at the slams. Rafa’s 2017 USO no doubt is a ‘cakewalk’ draw, but Rafa had his many tough slam draws all his career, in fact they ranked his third toughest, behind Stan’s and Djoko’s during their respective careers when they were winning their slams.
Yes, I agree with you, Lucky. Although Rafa’s road through the tourney was close to as cakewalk as it gets, most of his title paths have been a tough as it gets! So no reason for it to matter how his road was.
is the pic above rafas shoe or just a gif taken randomly
This is Rafa’s shoe he wore at the USO last year.
http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Rafael+Nadal+2016+Open+Day+7+cxDfulnEZRpl.jpg
yep, I took it at the USO last year
my pic!
Great close up picture ricky!
Yes, the little teardrops with 10 and 13 inside are for his previous USO championships. (Took me awhile to decode that one, but I’m old and slow).
Wait 1 sec, what about Fed’s Wimbledon draw? He played an injured Cilic in the finals.
Please stop belittling R. Federer’s achievements, it’s not right or mature.
Federer was AMAZING in Wimbledon and he is the best player this year.
yes he is the best player but that title will be taken away from him if a certain Mallorcan wins the USO on Sunday.
Why?
Yeah, agree with you VR. If Rafa wins the title this coming Sunday, Rafa will be > Fed this year, because Rafa wins more points, even though both win 2 slams, 2 masters and a 500 event, but Rafa wins more matches during the season with shorter breaks between events unlike Fed who has/had to take long breaks.
why?
How is that difficult to get? Both will have two slam titles each, 2 masters 1000 each and Rafa will have nearly 2,000 more race points. He will be world no.1 with a good margin!
Anyway, he has not won the title yet. Everyone had also handed Fed the trophy in 2009. I fully expect Rafa to in win convincingly but until it is done, we should just wait.
The one with maximum ranking points is the BEST player of the year..as simple as that..Ranking points don’t lie.
If Fed did not play clay, it is as he thought he wont do much there and it will jeopardize his chances at Wimby..had he played clay he may not have won Wimby..be logical and rational guys..Fed knows himself better than any of us here..
R. Federer is the best player this year for many obvious reasons.
I am a little busy so i can’t write much but how many times did R. Federer defeat R. Nadal this year?
Am not sure i think it might be three times or 4 please check.
You don’t have to do this but when you reply to my questions/comments can you just post it directly @Stanley instead of reply.
I wish Rafito the very best, please don’t disappoint Rafans they love U! Maybe like you.
I understand your point, Atul, but surely you can find a better example than 2017 Wimbledon. I’m sure if you dig around in 2004-2006, you could find a comparably easy draw for Fed. At Wimbledon 2017, Fed at least faced 2 top-ten and 2 top 13 players. To be fair, Rafa didn’t even face a seeded player until the semis, and even then the highest seed out of the two is 24th. Not at all suggesting that anything should be made of Rafa’s draw. Just saying we should be fair and not pretend like Federer’s overall draw was easier than Rafa’s here. I’m sure that Fed’s 2006 AO draw was equivalent to Rafa’s at the Open!
*Fed’s overall draw at Wimby, I mean.
@Raindrop,
Why will i have a broken heart?
I like R. Nadal and i made lots of profits yesterday & today.
I made profits in Nadal’s match, P. Carreno, ATP doubles etc.
Yes i wanted DELPO to win but that doesn’t mean i hate Rafa ok, i like DELPO too and if he had won, my profits would be crazy but that’s ok.
If Sloane Stephens & N.Y. Liberty(WNBA) wins i will make more profits again.
Today i will contradict one of my slips because the slip were i picked Madison Keys to win i also picked DELPO to win and he lost.
I explained the way i bet here-
https://tenngrand.com/2017/09/07/u-s-open-sf-preview-and-prediction-nadal-vs-del-potro/comment-page-2/#comments
page 2 of this article, time 11:10 PM.
R. Nadal to win & over 34.5 games at 2.45 odd.
He better not lose this match, i like the over games and the over 3.5 sets but i don’t have funds in my other betting account.
This one is offering 3 sets, 4 sets or 5 sets to pick from, i haven’t made my final decision and i might avoid it because R. Nadal is balling and can win in 3 sets.
He needs to be tested just in case.
I miss N. Djokovic, S. Wawrinka. kei Nishikori etc.
K. Anderson will lay it all but he might not be successful.
Vamos Stanley!
An injured Cilic who also has put on a massive show of choking.
But, even if Cilic were playing great, I still think the max he could have done his take a set off Fed because Fed was playing extremely well. I can SEE when an all-time great playing that well and wouldn’t make stupid statements like ‘he has not faced enough top 25/10 players’. Please!! DO people really think the likes of Goffin, Cilic, Berdych, Tsonga, Dimitrov , Thiem would have been able to challenge this version of Nadal?! I can only shake my head and say it is RIDICULOUS.
This version of Nadal was way better than the AO 17 vesion of Nadal! The level of aggressiveness was on another level and so was his returning and serving.
He had 45 winners in 5 longgg sets against Dimitrov and only 35 winners against Fed. He was able to hit 45 winners in very quick 4 sets last night!!
Serving stats comparison:
Rafa’s average first serve speed in the semis and final of the AO was 108-109 Mph range. He has been hitting it at an average of 112-114 MPH on average in his last two matches.
Rafa’s average 2nd serves speed was 90-93 MPH range in the SF and finals of AO and he has upped that to 94-96 MPH in this year’s USO and he is getting a bigger kick on them! he has been cranking up to 105 MPH 2nd serve as well.
Last nigh’t Rafa was a beast.
VR, one stats that’s very impressive about Rafa is his 15 consecutive wins at slam SFs, after his loss to Delpo at USO2009. I checked Fed’s and Djoko’s stats, both didn’t have Rafa’s impressive records at the slam SFs.
I will rather say Fed’s consecutive Slams SF is a very underrated stat. Just shows Fed was untouchable in early rounds for 10 years without fail
Djoko’s 14 consecutive slam SF streak plus 28 slam QF streak to me more impressive than Fed’s because Djoko plays in a tougher era than Fed’s of 2004-2007.
Rafa winning at 15 consecutive slam SFs means that each time he reaches a slam SF, chances of him winning it is 100%, since the last time he lost at USO2009 SF! I mean that shows how well Rafa plays once he gets there and how tough it is to beat him there! He has won nine out of fourteen slam finals played since (USO2009), may be ten out of fifteen by this Sunday, not a bad stats either.
absolutely unreal statistic
Weak or strong era will have a say in determining the top 4 of the tournament. Reaching consecuitve semis you were just untouchable against all others. Djoker losses against Sam Querrey/Istomin(who are weak players in any era) just show how diffilcult it is to do day in day out.
True, agreed!
Novak and Roger also had their fair share of easy roads to a slam win. Roger’s path to another Wimby trophy wasn’t exactly challenging, either,lol! But the great players are great because they can rise to the occasion and grab their chances. Rafa’s win yesterday had nothing whatsoever to do with luck.
And I don’t expect a cakewalk tomorrow. Anderson is no pushover and actually better than his current ranking suggests. That said, Rafa will probably rise to the occasion. As I said, sometimes a great player has to grab a good opportunity. Unfortunately the young guns couldn’t do it.
Rafa in 5!!!!! Yeh I went there. 1 vote ☝️