Feder vs Nadal best bets and Australian Open Men’s tip

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal meet for the first time in a Grand Slam final since 2009 and the impartial tennis fan could not be happier.

The reign of Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic seems to be over for at least the first quarter of the year and the old pros who seemed to be on their last legs get to have another shot at the crown.

Both Federer and Nadal had to do it the hard way to make it through to the 2017 final.

Federer extended his powerful record over Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka to 19 wins from 22 matches after he outlasted the 2016 US Open champion in five sets.

Nadal took just shy of five hours and five sets to get past Grigor Dimitrov on Friday night. The match was an absolute war of attrition and took every ounce of energy that the Spaniard has in his beat-up body for a shot at winning just his second Australian Open title.

Can the old sparring partners wind back the clock and treat us to one more classic final? We certainly hope so.

It is not 2009 anymore Rafa

The year Spanish superstar Nadal won his solitary Australian Open title he outgunned fellow countryman Fernardo Verdasco in a 5 hour and 14 minute marathon which was at the time the longest match in the tournament’s history.

Many doubted whether Rafa could back up from the slugfest to mount a challenge against the well-rested Federer, but Nadal was able to repeat the dose just two days later to win his maiden Australian Open title.

Eight years on and Nadal will have to replicate the amazing feats of strength if he is to win the first major of the year, a fact that is not lost on the 30-year-old.

“These kind of matches, even for the body, it destroys your body, but that’s tennis,” Nadal said.

“That’s special, much more special than playing best-of-three. It should be like this, in my opinion.

“For me it is fair enough. It is true that if you play a match like I had today, it probably is true that you are in disadvantage, yes.

“But that’s a special situation, no? I cannot complain about that.”

While he is much older and perhaps not in the shape that he was back in 2009, Nadal believes he can draw inspiration from that semi-final performance which was arguably one of the greatest matches the tournament has ever seen.

“That what I’m going to try,” Nadal said in regards to emulating his 2009 heroics.

“I am seven, eight years older but now is not the time to talk about that. (Now it) is time to be happy, very happy.”

Australian Open Men’s Final match prediction

For the sentimental tennis fan this is the one we all wanted to see, and for the bookmakers; this is an absolute toss of the coin.

Rafael Nadal ($1.82) enters the 2017 Australian Open final as the slight favourite to win his 15th grand slam title at Sportsbet.com.au.

Despite being the $2.05 underdog at WilliamHill.com.au for this match, we are backing Roger Federer to prevail against Nadal.

In their primes Nadal always seemed to get the better of Federer in the big matches, but we are eight years removed from their last grand slam final and both men are battling aliments and are in vastly different headspaces.

Federer looks like a world beater this tournament. We believe that even if Djokovic or Murray had progressed through to the second week of the Australian Open Federer would have been able to match them and present a real challenge.

Nadal on the other hand has looked shaky at times. Sure, there is the bullying nature of his topspin forehand and the relentless pursuit of balls from every angle of the court but there is also signs of mental and bodily fatigue at varying moments in matches that just were not there eight years ago.

Compound that by the shorter turn around after a five hour slugfest and we are leaning even further towards the Fed.

This final will be a walk down memory lane for tennis fans around the globe but we are predicting a different outcome to the usual Nadal domination over his nemesis Federer.

The Fed-Express should hit top-gear on his potential farewell tour en route to his 18th grand slam title.

Match winner: Roger Federer – $2.05 at Sportsbet.com.au