Roger Federer’s rivalry with Rafael Nadal was iconic, but admittedly, it was fairly one-sided for quite a while.
Prior to 2015, Nadal had a commanding lead in the head-to-head by 23-10, and 9-2 at Grand Slam tournaments.
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Until that point, the Spaniard dominated Federer on clay (13-2), and had a better record on hard court as well (9-6).
But in 2014, the Swiss changed from a 90 square inch racket to a 97 square inch, a decision that saw him experience a second prime.
Of the remaining seven matches in their rivalry, Federer beat Nadal six times, three of which he managed in straight sets.
Andy Roddick explains Roger Federer’s improvements after 2014
Speaking in an episode of Served, former US Open champion Andy Roddick explained exactly how the racket helped Federer.
Roddick said: “I think if you asked Roger, should you have switched two or three years earlier? My guess is that he would have said, ‘Yeah, it was really good when I did’.
“The biggest thing was that he was able to swing full out on backhand returns. It was funny, like when he wasn’t in his prime anymore because of that racket switch, he kind of code-switched the matchup against Rafa.
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“He [Nadal] said the 2018 version of Federer was the best I saw. I remember Roger switched, and I watched him beat Rafa at Indian Wells, which is slow.
“He was hitting backhand winner returns off of Rafa’s serve, which was something I hadn’t seen before.
“Normally, it started with laying down the chip, which worked against me, not so much against Rafa. If you’ve won 20 slams with a certain setup, it’s really hard to switch, and different strokes for different folks.
“But I would suspect that if you asked him, ‘Do you wish you had made that switch two years earlier?’ I’m guessing he would say yes.”
Roger Federer’s Grand Slam results after changing rackets
Federer clinched 20 Grand Slam titles during his legendary career, but the large majority of them were captured early on in his career.
Indeed, between the 2010 Australian Open and the 2017 Australian Open, Federer only won one major; the 2012 Wimbledon championships.
But after changing rackets, Federer’s results at Grand Slams quickly improved, with three finals made across 2014 and 2015.
Following an injury-ridden 2016 season, Federer finally ended his major drought in 2017 by clinching the Australian Open title.
He then went on to win Wimbledon for the final time later that season, and in 2018 Federer picked up his 20th Grand Slam trophy at Melbourne Park.
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