Roger Federer returned to the French Open after a three-year absence with every intention of putting himself on a collision course with Rafael Nadal, the most inexorable force ever on Roland Garros' red clay courts.
He got double the opposition he'd wished for in Friday's semifinal: Nadal plus a capricious, swirling wind. Frequent gusts torqued and altered the trajectory of shots and sent red clay dust billowing across the Philippe-Chatrier main show court, occasionally making the two men appear as if they were playing through a road rally in the desert.
It was a bad hair afternoon, with conditions that would prompt recreational players to repair to a sports bar. There were times when both No. 3 Federer and No. 2 Nadal struggled like pilots trying to level their wings for landing in a sudden squall. But the 33-year-old Nadal, as usual, found solutions and touched down safely on the court he has ruled almost continuously since he was a teenager. He relatively cruised to a 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 victory and will face the winner of the rain-delayed semifinal between Dominic Thiem and Novak Djokovic on Sunday.
"There is nobody who even plays remotely close to him," Federer said with admiring resignation in his postmatch news conference. "I don't even know who I need to go search for to go practice with somebody who plays like him." He smiled. "I was thinking that during the match. It's just amazing how he plays from deep and then is able to bounce back and forth from the baseline. It's just quite interesting.
"I didn't play a poor two first sets, in my opinion. I thought Rafa really had to come up with the goods to make the difference, and the difference was a passing shot here, a pickup there, and then he was doing great, you know."
Nadal, as usual, returned strongly. "Well, I don't find any sparring partners, either, playing like Federer," he said. "There are no two people like Federer on this planet. Luckily, actually
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