On November 22, 2011, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal met for the 26th time at O2 Arena in London. Roger scored his 11th victory over his nemesis after toppling Rafa 6-3, 6-0 in 61 minutes! It was their fourth clash at the ATP Finals and the first in the round-robin stage after battling in the semi-final in 2006 and 2007 and the final a year ago.
This was the most impressive win for the Swiss over the Spaniard in countless encounters. Roger dominated from start to finish and cemented his advantage over Rafa on an indoor court. The surface was not very fast, allowing Federer to build the points around his forehand.
Also, the low bounce kept him safe against Nadal’s topspins. Rafa had nothing in his arsenal that would harm Roger, standing powerless against the sheer strength of the rival’s strokes and struggling in almost every point.
Nadal toppled Federer in the previous three matches that season in Miami, Madrid and Roland Garros. However, this was never his part of the season, finishing the tournament in the round-robin stage after losing to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the last clash.
On the other hand, Roger was ready for this meeting, heading to London after winning 17 of the previous 18 matches and lifting trophies in Basel and Paris. He did everything right against Rafa, dropping eight points on serve and never facing a break point.
The Swiss conquered over half of the points on the return and scored four breaks from six opportunities to overwhelm the Spaniard in every department. Most of the exchanges stayed on Federer’s racquet, playing with the aggression and determination to control the rallies at any cost, making just 15 errors.
As always in these encounters, Roger’s backhand was the critical shot. Compared to many times before, Rafa failed to draw mistakes from that wing, with no plan B for how to impose his strokes and finish the battle at least with a few extra games on his tally.
Federer committed only six mistakes from his backhand side. That earned him an opportunity to hit a full attacking mode with his forehand, rattling off winner after winner and keeping Nadal vulnerable from every part of the court.
The Swiss had 14 service winners and constructed the points nicely with an aggressive first groundstroke, opening the court for a direct point or forcing the Spaniard’s error. Nadal had eight unreturned serves, but five came in his opening two service games.
He failed to score free points in the rest of the match while needing them badly after losing the advantage in the baseline rallies. Nadal served at 73%, which gave him nothing. Roger had the upper hand on the first and second serve return, using his anticipation and deep returns to grab an early advantage in the rallies.
Nadal never found his groundstrokes, finishing the match with pale three winners in comparison to Roger’s 21, 15 from his forehand alone!
Roger Federer lost three games against Rafael Nadal at the 2011 ATP Finals.
Federer felt comfortable on the court right from the start, hitting only nine unforced errors despite deep and offensive shots, just two more than Nadal.
Roger stayed on six forced errors in another demonstration of Rafa’s inferiority in the exchanges. The Spaniard counted 12, with no time to prepare for his shots and a lot of open space on his side of the court that Federer exploited so nicely.
Rafa’s strokes lacked depth and power, standing no chance without his rival’s backhand errors, as Roger outplayed him with textbook attacking tennis. Federer grabbed two-thirds of the shortest rallies up to four strokes.
He claimed 32 out of 48 points and had a 12-8 advantage in the mid-range points from five to eight shots. Federer also dominated the most extended exchanges, which is not often the case against Nadal, taking ten out of 13 points to overpower his rival completely.
Roger kicked off the match with a double fault before holding after three winners. They had seven winners in total in games three and four. Roger looked like a more determined player from the field, with Nadal hanging in thanks to five service winners.
After the opening five games, Federer already hit four forehand winners and broke Rafa at love to move 4-2 ahead. There were no free points for Nadal in the sixth game. He struggled to keep pace with Federer in the exchanges after the Swiss hit two winners to earn three break chances.
He converted the first after a 33-stroke rally and outplayed Nadal again from the baseline with his steady groundstrokes. The Swiss continued to push strong with his serve and forehand. He forged a 5-2 gap with four winners in game seven after just 24 minutes.
Nadal held from 30-15 down in game eight and reduced the deficit to 5-3 after his first winners from the court. He could not even think about break points, as Roger closed the set with great forehands in game nine to take the opener 6-3.
Federer was 8-5 in front in service winners and fired ten direct points from the field against only one from Nadal, which made all the difference. Roger had two unforced errors more (6-4) but would take that all day long, considering how many winners he landed.
Nadal needed a good start in the second set. However, he wasted a game point and lost serve instead, which indicated his ultimate fall. Roger stayed in the game after a 13-shot rally and sealed the break with his tenth forehand winner.
The Swiss confirmed the break with three service winners in the second game and did not stop there, breaking again in game three to march towards victory! Federer won four medium and longer rallies to keep Nadal without any answer.
The Swiss stayed in the exchanges comfortably and kept his backhand safe until getting a chance to attack with his flaming forehand. Roger hit seven backhands in the game’s last point, keeping the ball closer to the baseline until Rafa’s mistake.
Federer kept firing winners from all over the court and landed three in the fourth game to move 4-0 in front and closer to the finish line. Rafa faded from the court and got broken again in game five. On the other hand, Roger played better and better, pumped and motivated to score the most impressive triumph over his nemesis and seal the deal in style.
The Swiss created two break points with two return winners, and Nadal fended them off. Still, Rafa lost another long rally and got broken when Roger placed a backhand winner into an open court. Federer crossed the finish line with three winners in game six after only an hour.
Thus, he celebrated his most one-sided win over Nadal and moved toward the title defense, which he did after beating Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final.
