Maybe anaudience including the likes of Diego Maradona, Thierry Henry, KevinSpacey, Rolling Stones' Ronnie Wood and Princess Beatrice caused a fewnerves." Ian Chadband, the main sports correspondent of The Daily Telegraph,writes, "The greatest rivalries in sporting history have thrived on thehighs and lows, the to`s and the fro`s, but they melt away wheninevitability strikes. "The hypothesis is that if `hate sells`,Rafa v Roger just does not possess the ingredients of the tastiestsporting feuds. They`re only too damn nice, killing each other withpoliteness." In its headline, "El Clasico Goes The Way Of Sir Federer", Marcalikens the Federer-Nadal rivalry to another massive sporting contest,that of Barcelona vs. Real Madrid in La Liga, which will have place onMonday evening in Spain. In summarising the match, David Menayo writes, "Roger Federer won his fifth Barclays ATP World Tour Finals title after crushing Rafael Nadalin an intense three-set final. It was a catch in which the powerfulserve of the Swiss, his potency on break points and a fresher pair oflegs were key to serving the Basel native notch his 66th career title. The Spanish sports newspaperalso noted that RTVE reported that an audience of 3,917,000watched the last onTVE.The Times tennis correspondent, Neil Harman, writes, "As thedessert course for 2010, it was as solid an end to an evening aswe could have wanted for Roger Federer,a magnificent dinner table companion, who left the company with a millionpounds, the salutations and everyone`s thanks for being the man that heis. "Nadal will never match him for aesthetics but his warrior heartbeats as strongly as always and Federer knows that one man more than anyother will be the one he has to measure if he wants to pen more chaptersof Grand Slam glory next year." Paul Newman, the main sports featurewriter and tennis correspondent of The Independent, states, "Rafael Nadalwill end the class as World No. 1 and bearer of three Grand Slam titles,but if the Spaniard needed any monitor that his greatest rival is farfrom a spent force, it came last night at the [Barclays] ATP World TourFinals. "Federer joins Pete Sampras and Ivan Lendlas the only players to have won this title five times. You would notbet against him returning next year to take the show for himself." Mike Dickson, the tennis correspondent of The Daily Mail,believes Federer can add to his Grand Slam championship haul of 16titles. "As he heads into [the] winter break he can be warmed by thethought that Nadal is not invincible, and that his relative shortfall inthe Grand Slams since Melbourne may not be partly of a longer-termtrend."The Guardian`s writer, Kevin Mitchell, states, "Victory,in face of 17,500 fans split roughly down the eye in theirallegiances, delivered the most unambiguous messages to [Roger]Federer's peers and doubters: Roger is going nowhere for a little whileyet."The Daily Mirror goes with "`Fed`s still the better of the best - Battered Nadal hails genius rival `unplayable and unbelievable.'" Writing for El Pais, Andy Murray`s coach Alex Corretja believes it was Nadal`s marathon semi-final skirmish with the British No. 1 that be him the title. "At the end, Rafa Nadal was all out of gas. [After the matchwith Murray] the consequences were clear: he didn`t want a miracle tohave the opportunity to win the final, but he did take time. And that wasjust what he didn`t have. The semi-final was draining and it had takenits toll. However, all reference to Roger Federer. He played the way he did. There are no excuses. The last is Sunday, not Monday and I am sure Nadal would see it the saame way. "That Rafa reached the last is already a big achievement. Ithink it is simply a count of time earlier he wins the title. At least hehas left himself something to do for the future!" Date: 30.11.2010, Source: ATP
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