March Madness #8: Federer puts a beat- down on Nadal

It's madness, I tell you! Fuzzy yellow ball style. Follow along this week for our Top 17 takeaways and outtakes from the 2017 Sunshine Double in California and Florida.

Check out No. 9 here.

It’s wild to consider that, in 2017, a Roger Federer versus Rafael Nadal match might not be one of the five best of an event. Such was the case in Miami, though, where Federer entirely had his way with Nadal on the Key Biscayne stadium court in a less-than-grand finale, which saw Federer victorious in straight sets.

Federer reaped the praise of colleagues from both tours for his performance, including last year’s WTA Sunshine Double champ, Victoria Azarenka:

To add to his frustration of five Miami Open final losses, Rafa’s issues fall down even to the level of not being able to keep his kicks on midpoint lately:

Don’t look now, but Nadal has dropped four straight to Federer, including three over three months this year. He’s still up 23-14 in their head-to-head, but who’s to say whether the everlasting Federer will close in even more on that in due time.

No one can say. At least no one but these two. Rafa has some figuring out to do. Meanwhile, Roger just. keeps. hitting.