Roger, Rafa to Meet in Record Sixth Grand Slam Final - 網球 Tennis

http://www.atptennis.com/1/en/2008news/wimbledon_finalpreview.asp
Roger, Rafa to Meet in Record Sixth Grand Slam Final
(第六次在大滿貫決賽相遇已經是一個記錄)

For only the third time in the Open Era (since 1968), the same two players
battle it out for the third straight year in a Grand Slam final.

No. 1 Roger Federer takes on No. 2 and rival Rafael Nadal (pictured prior to
last year's final) in the third consecutive championship at Wimbledon on
Sunday. Federer has won the last two meetings at the All England Club and
he's trying to become the first player since William Renshaw from 1881-86 to
capture six straight Wimbledon titles. He is the first player to reach six
straight Wimbledon finals since Bjorn Borg from 1976-81. Nadal is attempting
to become the first player since Borg in 1980 to win Roland Garros and
Wimbledon in the same year.

The other previous times the same two players met in the championship of a
Grand Slam tournament for three consecutive years was Federer and Nadal at
Roland Garros (2006-08) and from 1988-90 at Wimbledon where Stefan Edberg
defeated Boris Becker in two of the three years.

Nadal leads the career series 11-6 (9-1 on clay) and this is their 14th
overall meeting in a final (Nadal leads 9-4). This is the sixth career
meeting in a Grand Slam final between the two superstars (Nadal leads 3-2),
which is the most in the Open Era:

Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal 6 (Nadal 3-2)
Andre Agassi vs. Pete Sampras 5 (Sampras 4-1)
Ivan Lendl vs. Mats Wilander 5 (Wilander 3-2)
Bjorn Borg vs. Jimmy Connors 4 (tied 2-2)
Bjorn Borg vs. John McEnroe 4 (McEnroe 3-1)

* STREAKS ON THE LINE -- Both players come into the championship with
impressive winning streaks. Federer enters with an all-time record 65-match
winning streak on grass since his last loss to Mario Ancic in the first round
at Wimbledon six years ago. Since that loss he's won 40 in a row at the All
England Club, one short of Bjorn Borg's record of 41, which ended with a loss
to John McEnroe in the 1981 final. Nadal enters with a 23-match winning
streak since his second round loss (bye) to countryman Juan Carlos Ferrero at
Masters Series Rome on May 7.

* ROAD TO THE FINAL -- Federer has advanced to his sixth straight Wimbledon
final without dropping a set. In fact, the 26-year-old Swiss maestro has lost
his serve only twice in 88 games (saving 15 of 17 break points). He lost his
serve in the third set of his second round match against Robin Soderling and
in the opening game of the match against Marc Gicquel in the third round.
Since then, he has not lost serve in his last three wins over Lleyton Hewitt,
Mario Ancic and Marat Safin (saving 10 break points during that stretch).
Nadal, who dropped his only set in the second round against Ernests Gulbis,
has lost serve only four times in the tournament -- once vs. Gulbis, once vs.
Nicolas Kiefer in the third round, once vs. Mikhail Youzhny in the fourth
round and once in the semifinals vs. Rainer Schuettler.

* GRAND SLAM TITLE DOMINANCE -- Since Roland Garros in 2005 when Nadal
captured his first Grand Slam crown, 12 of the last 13 Grand Slam titles have
been won by Federer (8) or Nadal(4). The lone exception came at the
Australian Open in January when Novak Djokovic broke through to win his first
Slam title.

* MOVING UP ON THE LIST -- If Federer wins his 13th career Grand Slam title,
he will move within one of Pete Sampras on the all-time Grand Slam titles
list. He is 12-3 all-time in Slam finals, including a 12-0 mark outside
Roland Garros

* GRASS COURT FINALS -- Federer is unbeaten in 10 career grass court finals
while Nadal is 1-2 in grass finals. The Spaniard won his first career ATP
grass court title at Queen's (d. Djokovic) last month. Federer and Pete
Sampras have the most career grass court titles in the Open Era.

* NO. 1-2 REIGN CONTINUES -- Federer and Nadal have been No. 1 and 2 in the
South African Airways ATP Rankings every week since July 25, 2005 when Nadal
became No. 2. Federer has ranked a record 231 consecutive weeks at No. 1
(since Feb. 2, 2004) and Nadal for 154 straight weeks.

* HOME ON CENTRE COURT -- Federer is the first player to appear on Centre
Court for all seven matches in a Wimbledon fortnight since Pete Sampras in
2000.

* WHAT THE PLAYERS ARE SAYING -- After their wins on Friday: Federer: "I
think we always hope that we can live up to the expectations because by now
we've had so many sort of good matches against each other. It's hard to live
up to them all the time. So Paris was sort of a disappointment, in terms of
living up to the expectations. But that happens sometimes. For me it's
obviously important to sort of bounce back from that loss. Even though I'm
not going to draw anything out of that match because Rafa plays so different
on clay and grass. He plays so much closer to the baseline that I have to
draw from my two previous Wimbledon finals. So we'll see what happens."

Nadal: "I said before, for me for sure if I win here it's probably going to
be one of the most important wins in my career. But I don't want to speak
about winning. I only want to speak about I have to play the final, I have to
play my best tennis if I want chances for winning this final. Later if I am
here on Sunday with the title, well, you can ask me what I feel."

"I think both Roger and me have had a very good tournament. Right now I just
want to play well. It's always tough to play against Roger. At the same time,
Roger, I think, is tough to play against me, because we played a lot of times
in a lot of important matches, and this is one more. I lost the last two
times here, and this year I am going to try my best another time to win."


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