At one point the H2H was grievously 6-1 to Nadal (as a Fed-fanatic). Currently it is still 8-5 to Nadal though the gap has been closed. This is typical of Federer H2H's in the past eg. Henman Nalbandian Agassi (amongst others).

I am not saying this will be the case for their H2H at all. But with all the talk of Nadal being so close as to topple Federer (same as last year) from the Wimbledon final I wonder if it is the opposite way round.

It must be said that these days hardcourts ARE faster than grass and the reliability of the bounce helps flatter hitters. So infact I think Federer's best matchup against Nadal is on harcourt. If he is lucky enough to face him say twice before the clay season I think he could pull the H2H to 8-7 - much more respectable.

As well as this the no.1 ranking appears to be under threat. This is the case as Nadal is chasing points everywhere i.e. Stuttgart? If Federer ever does feel the need he has plenty of tournaments he can also enter. For instance if he can play Paris, extra gold series. Next year he has Doha and nothing from Miami and IW. I seriously can't beleive he will lose his no.1 ranking till atleast after Wimbledon 08.

The 8-5 head to head certainly doesn't look too bad, and as you say it may get closer over the next few months if they meet on hardcourt.
Fed has won 6 of the last 8 meetings including one on clay.
As for nadal chasing points, he obviously would love to be no1 and lets face it we've had much poorer no 1's, maybe natural justice dictates he should attain it for a while-roddick has been no 1, and rafa is a much better player
The problem then for rafa is that if he can't win a major apart from the french and fed keeps winning the other majors, a lot of questions and pressure could be brought to bare on rafas shoulders.
Can you imagine the press conferences where rafa would be asked 'do you think you are the real no1, as Federer has won three slams this year and you've only won one' . Everyone including Nadal will know this and more and more pressure will be on nadal on the slams outside the french, just like the pressure fed has regarding the french open.
Lets say Rafa is no1 and Fed no2 when they go into the Australian next year, i don't think tha scenario helps Rafa at all-when he hasn't won the tournament
I don't think Fed should chase points, he has to stay fit for the slams and masters -when the GOAT question comes up it's slams not weeks at no1 that count for most.

Not much to disagree with there except I think that Fed's days of winning 3/4 GS cannot last for much longer, perhaps in 2008, but surely Djokovic will step up to the plate, look how much he has improved in this year alone.

And, Fed cannot have won 6 of the last 8 matches if the H2H is 8-5 Nadal!

I think you meant that he won 4 of the last 6 starting from the end of the 2006 clay season.

As far as the best match-up for Fed, you may be right about hard, but the statistics so far suggest that it is grass. You are right that Fed has a past history of struggling to match an opponent and then running away with it - but he hardly ran away with the Wimbledon final this year...

On clay it is 6-1 Nadal
Hard it is 2-2 (with it being 1-1 in 2006)
Grass it is 2-0 Federer

This is the H2H

2007 Wimbledon
Great Britain Grass F Federer 7-6(7) 4-6 7-6(3) 2-6 6-2
Stats
2007 Roland Garros
France Clay F Nadal 6-3 4-6 6-3 6-4
Stats
2007 ATP Masters Series Hamburg
Germany Clay F Federer 2-6 6-2 6-0
Stats
2007 ATP Masters Series Monte Carlo
Monaco Clay F Nadal 6-4 6-4
Stats
2006 Tennis Masters Cup
China Hard S Federer 6-4 7-5
Stats
2006 Wimbledon
England Grass F Federer 6-0 7-6(5) 6-7(2) 6-3
Stats
2006 Roland Garros
France Clay F Nadal 1-6 6-1 6-4 7-6(4)
Stats
2006 ATP Masters Series Rome
Italy Clay F Nadal 6-7(0) 7-6(5) 6-4 2-6 7-6(5)
Stats
2006 ATP Masters Series Monte Carlo
Monaco Clay F Nadal 6-2 6-7(2) 6-3 7-6(5)
Stats
2006 Dubai
U.A.E. Hard F Nadal 2-6 6-4 6-4
Stats
2005 Roland Garros
France Clay S Nadal 6-3 4-6 6-4 6-3
Stats
2005 ATP Masters Series Miami
FL, U.S.A. Hard F Federer 2-6 6-7(4) 7-6(5) 6-3 6-1
Stats
2004 Miami AMS
FL, U.S.A. Hard R32 Nadal 6-3 6-3
Stats

Oops, :blush:
yeah i certainly meant that Fed had won 4 of their last 6 matches,
not 6 of 8.