Roger Federer extended his winning streak over Rafael Nadal this year to four matches.
Roger Federer extended his winning streak over Rafael Nadal this year to four matches after beating the top-ranked Spaniard 6-4,6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters on Sunday.
The Swiss 19-time grand slam winner, who still trails Nadal 23-15 in their overall head-to-head record, didn’t face a break point and started and ended the match with service breaks.
“I don’t know what my expectations were going in,” Federer said. “I thought I might struggle early on because it was a late finish last night.
“I had no nerves before the match, surprisingly. I think I was pretty clear about how I wanted to play the match. I started off very well and relaxed from then on.”
Despite his dominance in 2017, Federer doesn’t rate his chances of catching Nadal in their head-to-head record.
“It’s not going to happen. We don’t have enough years left on the tour. We ranked too good so we play each other only in finals at the moment You can’t win them all against Rafa, to be honest. He’s too good of a player,” Federer said.
Federer took advantage of three of seven break point opportunities in the match to snap Nadal’s 16-game winning streak, which included his China Open victory last week.
