There was something that was going to give.  Either Federer’s 9-0 record over Ferrer would end, or Federer would show he’s still got some game left.  There was some thought Ferrer might be able to topple Federer, partly because he’s been the most “successful” clay court player this season, if you measure success purely by match wins, that is.  Ferrer played a few clay court tournaments that Nadal didn’t (and doesn’t usually) bother to play.

For Federer, his game goes as his serve goes. Although Federer was having some problems trying to break Ferrer in the first set, he was not having problems holding serve.  And when Federer is not worried about his own serve, he takes more chances on return.

Federer’s style is better suited to play Ferrer than, say, Andy Murray.  Federer plays a high risk, high reward style of play.   Ferrer has generally struggled against this style of play because Federer will hit a slice shot, then a hard topspin.  He’s as likely to hit down-the-line, something Murray was afraid to do, as he is crosscourt.  Intriguingly, Murray played Ferrer more straight up, rather than mixing up the pace, as he normally does.  The difference between Murray and Federer, who also mixes up the pace, is Federer is willing to go for big shots and hit winners.  This is not Murray’s game, and so he tends to make more errors when he does go for his shots.

These days, Federer appears to be playing a form of “old man tennis”.  Once, Federer loathed the idea of drop shots.  Drop shots were for players that couldn’t hit groundstrokes.  Roger used to beat players by running around and outhitting them from the baseline. But now, Roger loves them, and used the drop shot prodigiously.  If he caught Ferrer on his heels at the baseline, he’d toss in a drop shot.  He also comes to net a bit more these days trying to end the points more quickly.  This seems a change from how he played last year, though it may be the way he plays Ferrer.

The second set saw Federer starting to miss more serves and eventually, he gave up an early break, as errors crept into his game, especially on the backhand.   Ferrer held the one break lead all the way to a second set win.

In the third set, however, Roger’s serve was back to humming again, and Ferrer was having issues returning.  At 4-3, Roger engineered another break, starting on a passing shot hit on the stretch.  He took the lead 5-3 and served out the match.

Earlier in the day, Almagro apparently played big tennis and took a set off Nadal, but he couldn’t keep up the high risk play.  Nadal took the next two sets, 6-2, 6-2.

So, that leaves us with the final people have been waiting for all year long.  Surprisingly, Federer hasn’t played Nadal since last year’s final in Madrid.  Federer probably benefited somewhat from a long match that Nadal played against Djokovic.  This time around, Nadal should be much fresher.  He didn’t play Barcelona and Almagro didn’t push him as much as Djokovic.

Nadal has to be considered the favorite in the final given that he’s won 2 finals already.  For Federer to win, he’ll need to serve well and step up his play up a notch.  Nadal probably has a huge comfort zone playing Verdasco in Monte Carlo and playing Ferrer in Rome.  Now, the two have played a lot, but Federer can still give Nadal trouble.

Can Federer beat Nadal once again?  Or will Nadal show his mastery of clay once again?  We’ll see tomorrow!