Those who follow tennis will agree that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have been rivals for most of their careers. They recently played the Australian Open final in Melbourne. The match was incredible with both players going through some ups and downs. Apart from the fantastic performance of these players, their shoes were high performance as well. Roger Federer wore his Nikecourt Zoom Vapor 9.5 Flyknit shoes, while Rafael Nadal was in his Nikecourt Lunar Ballistic 1.5 tennis shoes. Both these shoes were finished in orange with a green sole. Along with their awesome shoes, they were wearing some cool tennis outfits as well. They both wore a black and white shirt with pink accents to show off the Nike logo along with their own personal logos. Their shorts were custom made black with pink accents, unlike the black with white swoosh sold in the market.

 

Winning the Australian Open was something amazing for Roger. He played around eight grand slam finals before finally winning one. The last time Roger won a grand slam was five years ago at the 2012 Wimbledon men’s championships. Roger came out roaring and had the fullest intensity on court. He dominated the match with his serve. His main strategy was to pull the opponent off of the court with his serve and hit the next shot to the open area of the court. Otherwise, he will just return the ball and slowly build up the point to his favor while keeping the ball deep. However, Nadal didn’t give in easy. The match went up to five sets. Federer dominated the first set, but was pushed back by Nadal in the second set losing 6-3 to Rafa. Federer then played amazing in the third set winning it at 6-1. On the other hand, Nadal dominated and ensured that he kept the ball deep, not allowing Federer to attack which ultimately threw off Fed’s game and Nadal won the fourth set at 6-3. In the end, Roger utilized his fitness and endurance to win the final fifth set, thus, winning the Australian Open. It was an incredible experience to watch thirty-five-year-old Federer ending his five-year draught.

 

Both the tennis players have their unique style of playing, which directly translates to what clothes they choose to wear. Roger prefers to have a regular shirt designed with his personal logo as well as Nike’s. Outfitted with Nike Dri-Fit technology, Roger is able to dominate the court and take down his opponent. His shoes are lightweight which suits his footwork on the court. The light shoe also lets him move gracefully from end to end during a match. Rafael Nadal has his own collection too. He has his unique Nike shirt outfitted with his own personal logo as well as the Nike logo. His shoes are designed for his game which is mainly played from the baseline of the court. Rafa’s shoes allow him to whip the ball and put as much spin as he can which troubled Roger very much in the Australian Open final. Overall, both players have achieved greatness over the years. Roger holding 18 grand slam titles, while Rafa, a close contender with 14. I truly enjoy watching these stylish players and hope to more of this tennis rivalry soon.

 

Another interesting thing to talk about is Serena Williams winning the 2017 Australian Open by beating her sister Venus Williams in the final. Many sponsors think that this is a tennis Renaissance believing players dominating in the past are coming back to win some more tournaments.