How Rafael Nadal Won the 2006 French Open

The boxer, the magician and the stare down.

I love Rafael Nadal. And I love Roger Federer. In some ways they remind me of one of the most inspiring and fascinating rivalries of all time: John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg. Except in this case the unbelievable baseline defender is the temperamental one. And the magical all court player is the calm one.

Anyone else notice that Rafa is developing an Elvis-like crooked sneer? And how about that little stare down right before the coin toss? Nadal jumping around like Mohammad Ali? Anyone see the look on Federer’s face? It was subtle–like everything about him–but different than the usual expressions you see from Roger. Fierce is the word that comes to mind. The message I read into it was something like: "Dude, you won’t be jumping around like that after I finish cutting you to pieces."

The Nadal sneer–the new Spanish Elvis?

Wow, I thought, this could be a great, great match. Which we all know it wasn’t. To me it was sad that it didn’t happen, mainly because Roger didn’t seem to rise fully to the occasion. Don’t get me wrong, Nadal won the match, and he fully deserved it….