USA: Top seeds Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal put on an exhibition ahead of the opening of the U.S. Open.

Men's Tennis world number one Roger Federer and world number two, Rafael Nadal gave New York City a preview of a showdown that might come during the upcoming U.S. Open, when they met on Thursday (August 24) to play a one on one exhibition match on a Manhattan street. Nadal, along with his arch rival Federer entertained the eager crowd with some easy tennis action. Federer, who won the last two U.S. Opens, is hoping to keep up his winning streak. "U.S.Open has been good to me in the last few years and I am back here as defending champion and number one in the world. So I hope I can live up to the expectations. Been here in New York after a while, so I am excited that it starts and the hype is really building up and hopefully I play a good tournament," Federer said. Nadal is the undisputed king of the clay court, extending his unbeaten record on his favored surface to 60 matches as he claimed his second consecutive French Open this June with a four-set victory over Federer. However, Nadal is looking to better his record on the hard courts if he ever wants to unseat Federer as world's top player. "Yeah, I am practicing hard everyday, so I am happy to be in New York. It's a very nice city. So I want to play good this tournament. It's one of my special goals of the year and I'm going to try," said Nadal. Defending champion Federer is, of course, the overwhelming favorite at this year's U.S. Open but tennis fans are hoping for a repeat of the Wimbledon and French Open finals when the world's two best players will be pitted against each other in the final. If they keep running into each other, Federer agrees that this rivalry might have the makings of the classic rivalries of the past like of John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg or Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi. "Yeah, if it continues the way it is going at the moment, that we play each other often in the grand slam finals and a lot during the year too, that's only going to help. So I am excited that he has come along and he's done a great job, playing very consistently at a young age. That's an unbelievable thing. That's something I was not even close to do," said Federer referring to Nadal. Nadal has been the only player to beat Federer more than once since he took over the number one spot in February 2004. He is for the moment trying to focus on his first round game and trying not to think about a final with Federer just yet. "I am not thinking much about a final with Federer. I am going to focus on my match with (Mark) Philippoussis. I am thinking about that. Nothing more than that," he said. Tennis fans who watched the exhibition match between the two pros said they had a tough time picking sides. Sixteen year old Richard Roberts knows Nadal is a fierce competitor but will be rooting for Federer. "I'll root for Federer because I like his style of game more, classical strokes. I like Nadal's intimidation of getting to every ball. But I'll root for Federer," said Roberts Florida native, Harriet Damast is looking forward to the two weeks of the U.S. Open and following the game of Federer and Nadal. "I was rooting for Nadal actually because I think we need new blood, but Federer is something very, very special and just to watch these to play is a plus for this sport of tennis," said Damast. The U.S. Open begins this August 28th.

ITN Source | August 24, 2006

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