2017 Australian Open – Men's singles final
 Roger Federer (17) vs.  Rafael Nadal (9)
|
|||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||
| Date | Sunday January 29, 2017 | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tournament | Australian Open | ||||||||||||||||||
| Location | Melbourne, Australia | ||||||||||||||||||
 |
|||||||||||||||||||
| Roger Federer won a record 18th Grand Slam | |||||||||||||||||||
The 2017 Australian Open Men's Singles final was the championship tennis match of the Men's Singles tournament at the 2017 Australian Open. It was contested between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, ranked 17th and 9th in the world respectively. It was their record ninth meeting in a Grand Slam final in their rivalry, and their 1st meeting in a Grand Slam final since the 2011 French Open. In a rematch of the 2009 Australian Open final, which Nadal won in 5 sets, Roger Federer won the duel in 5 sets, beating Nadal for the first time in a Grand Slam since the 2007 Wimbledon final, ending a 6-match losing streak against Nadal in Grand Slam events. Having lost all of their previous three encounters, this was the first time Federer defeated Nadal at the Australian Open and also marked Federer's first Grand Slam victory over Nadal outside the grass courts of Wimbledon. Federer extended his record of Grand Slam men's singles titles to 18, once again for the third time breaking the previous all-time record of 17 which he himself held.
Due to their storied rivalry, the advancing age of both players in their respective careers, critical speculation of this being their last Grand Slam finals contest against one another, the potential tennis history made from either victory and subsequent implications on their respective legacies, and the match's relevance towards popular and critical discussions on either Federer or Nadal being 'the greatest tennis player of all time', the 2017 Australian Open men's singles finals match between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, referred by the moniker 'Fedal XXXV', was a 'dream final' and the most highly anticipated final in not only the tournament's history but also all Grand Slam and tennis history, and as being one of the most important events in sport.
Federer and Nadal's participation in the 2017 Australian Open marked their major returns from their 2016 seasons that saw sidelining injuries. Federer in particular had not played a tournament since the 2016 Wimbledon semi-final, having aggravated his surgically repaired knee to the extent that he called off the rest of his 2016 season, including missing out the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio that he was keen to compete in for the men's singles Olympic Gold Medal that eluded him and also playing the highly anticipated mixed doubles pairing with compatriot and fellow tennis great, Martina Hingis. Unable to defend his Cincinnati Open and Swiss Basel Indoors titles and his runner up position at the 2016 US Open, Federer fell from No.3 to No. 16 at the end of the 2016 year, dropping out of the top 5 for the first time since March 2014 and dropping out of the top 10 rankings for the first time since 2002, subsequently ending a streak of 14 years. Contrasting Federer's consistent semi-finals and finals appearances in Grand Slams from 2015 Wimbledon onwards, Nadal failed to make Grand Slam quarterfinals since the 2015 French Open. His last Grand Slam title win was the 2014 French Open and his last appearance in the Australian Open men's singles final was against Stan Wawrinka in 2014, which Wawrinka won in four sets. Nadal, however, won the Monte-Carlo Masters title in 2016, while Federer, for the first time since 2000, did not win a tournament title. Prior to the 2017 Australian Open, Nadal reached the quarterfinals of the 2017 Brisbane International losing to Milos Raonic, while Federer had played in the 2017 Hopman Cup in singles and mixed round robins with Belinda Bencic, losing a match in each of the round robins.
...
Wikipedia