Fedal face-off is the tennis lover's dream come true

Who would have imagined the reuniting of the 35-year old Roger Federer who, past his prime, "danced like a butterfly and stung like a bee", and Rafael Nadal aka the "matador from the land of bull fights" in the first major tennis event of 2017?

Both the sport stars subjugated the men's game between 2004 and 2010, before Novak Djokovic's emergence, and lately, Andy Murray's - and have offered many memorable dogfights to tennis lovers over the past 13 years.

Looking back, the bull has had a 6-2 head to head advantage over the bee in Grand Slam finals.

He has got the better of Federer in Melbourne three times. But this time around, things are going to be different for both of them. Neither, in their wildest dreams, considered playing in the finals, and that too against each other, especially given they have not been in a Grand Slam final for too long.

On Sunday, however, tennis lovers will witness for the last time a repeat of the sport's most cherished spectacle. Arguably the greatest of all who have ever stepped on a tennis court, these two will be fighting for a piece of history.

Perhaps, this will be the match they will be remembered for. However, the odds heavily favour a Nadal win. Both players had to deal with 5-set duels in their semi-final encounters.

While Federer’s lasted just over three hours, Nadal had to ward off for nearly five hours the 25-year-old Grigor Dimitrov’s onslaught who is playing the best tennis of his career so far.

“First of all, I hope to recover well,” Nadal told Jim Courier in the post-match on-court interview. He will get one day less to rest before the final than Federer. But such a situation is not new for the Spaniard.

In 2009, he played an even lengthier 5-set semi-final against his own countryman Fernando Verdasco. That left him drained, denying him sleep till 5am. Yet, it did not thwart his attempts at beating Federer in a 5-set final and left the Swiss emotionally overwhelmed.

During the presentation ceremony, Federer’s voice cracked: “God, it’s killing me.” He could not fight his tears before a packed stadium. More importantly, the encounter with Dimitorov has come as a warm up for Nadal before the final, because Dimitorov’s all-court play is very much similar to that of Federer’s.

The Bulgarian also hits his backhand single-handed and straight, more than Federer, and he used it very effectively against Nadal, especially down the line.

In slower courts, Nadal has used his whipping forehand to break down Federer’s backhand until about 2011. Since then, the Spaniard has lost some of the sting in his fiery forehand, and appears a fraction of a second slower in his step.

Curiously, in the first Grand Slam of the season, all four singles finalists are aged 30 or over, with 35-year-old Serena Williams overpowering her elder sister Venus, 36, in a performance, less worthy of her record-breaking 23rd Grand Slam win in an hour and twenty two minutes. Tennis is all but a game in which your talents and vulnerabilities are on display in equal measure.

Today you may be holding the biggest trophy, the very next you’re clasping the platter for the second best, all the while wondering through misty eyes what might have been.