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Rome, 2006. Clay dust hangs in the air. Rafael Nadal lies on his back, arms spread, the Foro Italico roaring around him.

It’s a snapshot frozen in time, but the real story is how we got there.

Wind back to 2004, Miami. A teenage Nadal shocks World No. 1 Roger Federer, winning 6-3, 6-3 in their first meeting. It’s an upset that quietly sparks what will become one of tennis’s defining rivalries.

By 2005, they’re trading blows. Federer remains the dominant force, but Nadal is rising fast, especially on clay. Monte-Carlo. Barcelona. Roland Garros. The Spaniard begins to build something formidable, something that even Federer struggles to contain.

Fast forward to May 14, 2006.

Nadal arrvies in Rome riding an 11-match clay-court winning streak, having claimed trophies in Monte-Carlo and Barcelona. Federer still World No. 1, is chasing answers, determined to halt Nadal’s growing dominance on the surface.

The paths to the Internazionali BNL d’Italia final in Rome tell their own story. Nadal cruises, dropping just one set. Federer fights, surviving gruelling three-set battles against Nicolas Almagro and David Nalbandian.

The stage is set. The anticipation is real. But even then, no one could have predicted what would unfold next.

After his defeat in the Monte-Carlo final, Federer vowed to take a more aggressive approach in their next meeting and in Rome, he followed through. The Swiss surged forward relentlessly, coming to the net 84 times and winning 64 of those points in their five-hour encounter. For long stretches, he was in control. His forehand dictated play, dragging Nadal wide and opening up the court with sharp angles.

Federer won the first set with a flawless tie-break. He led 4–2 in the second set but couldn’t convert. He stormed through the fourth set 6-2 to force a decider and in the fifth set he led 4-1 and held two match points on Nadal’s serve at 6-5, 15/40, squandering both with errors.

Federer then led 5/3 in the fifth-set tie-break, and yet, after all of that, it slipped. Three errors. Four straight points for Nadal. The title, gone.

“I think the second one was definitely rushed,” Federer said on the match points in his press conference. “I tried to hit a winner, why not. I already had one match point, so I thought I might as well go for it a little bit. I didn’t try to totally hit a winner, but tried to play aggressive and I was a little late on it.

“The first one I was more disappointed about because I was in a good position, and I didn’t want to go for the outright winner at all. I just tried to play solid and with a lot of spin to his backhand and long. I just couldn’t get quite over it in time. So that was a pity.”

Nadal rolled in the clay following his win and then embraced his team. The victory took the Spaniard to 53 straight wins on clay, matching Guillermo Vilas‘ record. It also put the 19-year-old level with Bjorn Borg on 16 titles won as a teenager.

“I could have lost. I have won, but I could have lost,” Nadal reflected in his post-match press conference. “I’ve been down many times, and so I don’t know. For sure I played very well, but it was a very tough match. I played well the important points. I was aggressive when I needed to, when I needed to recover when I was down 1-4, and I think this is what made things change. But this is sports. It happened in Miami for him, and now it happened for me today. Well, that is what makes the final.”

Nadal would go on to win 81 straight matches on clay; it was Federer who finally broke the streak in Hamburg in May 2007.

[ATP FANTASY]