Roger Federer has often enjoyed his time at the Miami Open. The Swiss superstar has won the tournament four times throughout his illustrious career. However, one of his performances in the final is still remembered fondly by the tennis community. The Miami crowd were treated to a thrilling ‘Fedal’ match at the Miami Open final in 2005.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal were both aiming to win their first ever Miami Open title when the duo clashed in 2005. In front of a packed crowd, Nadal and Federer played out a thrilling 5-set match to decide the champion. Eventually, Federer defeated Nadal 2–6, 6–7(4–7), 7–6(7–5), 6–3, 6–1 to lift his first-ever title.
This match showed the strong character of Roger Federer, who came back from 2 sets down to defeat the Spanish star. Despite being two sets down, Federer won the next set in tie-break before winning the final two sets to win the title. In an interview with USA Today, Federer admitted that he showed great character during that final to get the win over Nadal. The Swiss star further added that that match taught him a lot about himself.
“In 2005 when I won in five sets in Miami against Rafa Nadal was big for me having been down two sets and a break, but I found a way to win it. That really showed me I had great character on the court, and I learned a lot about myself in that match. It was a milestone victory for me as I was still very young.”
Interestingly, that Federer vs Nadal Miami Open final was the last-ever final played in the tournament in the men’s singles category which went down to 5 sets. In 2006, Federer did again play in the finals but won that match in straight sets against Ivan Ljubicic.
While 2007 was the last time the Miami Open had a best-of-5 final, which was contested between Novak Djokovic and Guillermo Canas of Argentina. Djokovic won that final in 3 straight sets as well. After 2007, the ATP called for the Miami Open to keep the finals as well as a best-of-3 one to ensure players from those finals do not get injured and miss out on tournaments that followed Miami immediately.
Roger Federer and all 4 of his Miami Open wins
Roger Federer is third on the all time Miami Open winners list. The Swiss maestro has won the title in Miami a total of 4 times in the men’s singles category and trails only Andre Agassi and Novak Djokovic, who have both won it six times. Federer is also the last of the ‘Big Three’ to win the Miami Open title, having won his final title in 2019.
After his remarkable success in 2005 and 2006, the Swiss maestro had to wait for 11 long years for his next title win in Miami. But it came age sweetly at the age of 35 for Federer, marking a career renaissance of sorts as he again beat Rafael Nadal in the final in 2017. While Federer was unable to defend his title in 2018, he bounced back to defeat the lanky American, John Isner in the final to win in Miami at the age of 37.
On the other hand, Rafael Nadal has never won the Miami Open men’s singles title in his career, having missed out on an opportunity in 2024 as well due to injuries.
