Rafael Nadal to Roger Federer: No clear favourites at the 2017 US Open

For all their celebrated Grand Slam past, Nadal and Federer have never clashed in a US Open final

In one of those strangely uninspiring matches at Montreal two Sundays ago, Roger Federer, for once, was made to look his age by a much younger and sharper Alexander Zverev. For the 36-year-old Federer, these were the first signs that the rigours of a glorious — and exacting — season were finally catching up with him. Everything is so absurdly timeless about Federer that the average tennis fan’s mind sometimes refuses to accept the fact that the laws of fatigue apply to Federer’s paranormally hardy body as well. 

And, for a man his age, the battle scars of a wondrous