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'The Great One' attends Coupe Rogers to show support for local favourites
Wayne Gretzky knows a thing or two about being the best in his discipline, and it comes as no surprise to the hockey legend that Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer are currently battling for No. 1 in the Emirates ATP Rankings, more than a decade after the pair first dominated the ATP World Tour.
“Oh yeah, when you’re that good and that dedicated, anything is possible,” Gretzky exclusively told ATPWorldTour.com in Montreal on the opening day of main draw action at the Coupe Rogers.
Gretzky hung up his skates at the age of 38, finishing his career with four Stanley Cups, an all-time best 894 goals and countless records in 20 NHL seasons. Federer, a five-time year-end World No. 1, celebrates his 36th birthday on Tuesday. The 31-year-old Nadal finished World No. 1 in 2008, ’10 and ’13 and this week has a chance to return to the top spot for the first time since July 2014.
Together this season, the rivals and friends have swept three Grand Slam titles and four of the five ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments. They have faced off three times, including a memorable five-set win for Federer at the Australian Open.
“As a sports fan, I admire when a player can be at an elite level,” said Gretzky. “To get to an elite level is really hard, but to stay there for a long period of time – obviously Roger has been there a little bit longer, is a little bit older than Nadal – but it really is incredible for sports and it’s really fascinating to see two players of that caliber compete as hard as they do against each other, yet have so much respect for each other.
“If you have a passion for what you’re doing, you go to another level,” he added. “I think the thing that separates stars from superstars is that superstars want to be under pressure. They want to be under the microscope. They want to play in the finals. They want to be 2-2 going into the fifth set. That’s where they’re comfortable. You see players like Nadal and players like Djokovic and obviously Federer, and going back to guys like Bjorn and McEnroe, they want to be under the gun. It makes them play that much better, the bigger the game the more relaxed they seem to be and the more inspired they are and the better they play.”
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On Monday, ‘The Great One’ strolled around the Stade Uniprix grounds, making his rounds of the practice courts to show his support for the home favourites. After greeting top Canadian Milos Raonic, Gretzky headed over to Court 8 to watch up-and-coming Canadian Denis Shapovalov during a practice session with another #NextGenATP star, Korean Hyeon Chung. Gretzky’s 14-year-old daughter Emma, who has been playing tennis for a year, also had an opportunity to hit with the Bryans as they wrapped up practice on the adjacent court.
“That’s the great thing with sports, there’s always the next person that comes along… Guys like Milos and Daniel Nestor have opened doors for the young guys to come along, and years from now hopefully they’ll open doors for the new generation of kids that come along 10-15 years from now,” said Gretzky.
The Brantford, Ontario native, who also frequents the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, said he enjoyed the level of competition at the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournaments and planned to be back on site throughout the week to watch some matches.
“It’s always fun to have a big event like this in Canada,” he said. “Everyone enjoys seeing the best players compete against each other. In our country, we rally around supporting our local favourites, whether it’s Milos, Denis this year now, Genie Bouchard in Toronto. We’re very proud of our kids who compete against the best in the world and that’s what makes it fun for Canadians to watch.”

Once again, it was one match away but not be.
Wednesday evening in Arthur Ashe Stadium, Juan Martin del Potro defeated Roger Federer to advance to the semifinals. In the process, he halted what would have been the first-ever US Open matchup between the 2017 French Open champion and 15-time Grand Slam winner Rafael Nadal and 2017 Australian Open and Wimbledon titlist and 19-time major victor Federer.
In total, Nadal and Federer have played four times at the Australian Open, five times at the French Open, three times at Wimbledon and on 20 occasions in Masters 1000 events. But they have never met at America’s Grand Slam, and they will not meet here in 2017.
Here’s a closer look at the Federer-Nadal near misses at the US Open:
Federer captured an Open-era record fifth straight men's singles title in 2008, defeating Andy Murray in straight sets in the final. The 17-time Grand Slam champion also reached finals at the Open in 2009 and 2015. ()
2008
The 2008 US Open marked the first of four consecutive tournaments in which both Federer and Nadal reached the semifinals here. In the first of these, it was Andy Murray who spoiled the matchup of No. 1 versus No. 2, defeating Nadal in four sets to oust the top seed, who was playing in his first US Open semifinal. Second-seeded Federer, meanwhile, held up his end of the bargain, beating Novak Djokovic in four sets en route to the title match, where he straight-setted Murray for the last of his five consecutive men’s singles titles.

2009
The 2009 US Open proved an even bigger stunner than the year before. Once again, Federer defeated Djokovic in the semifinals, but it was a 20-year-old Juan Martin del Potro who would steal the show. The towering Argentine whipped Nadal in straight sets in the semis and then outlasted Federer in five sets in the final for his first – and to date, only – Grand Slam triumph.

2010
After years of falling just short in New York, Nadal finally broke through in 2010, dismissing surprise semifinalist Mikhail Youzhny to reach his first US Open men’s singles final. But once again, the Open was denied a Nadal-Fed showdown, as Djokovic finally broke through against the Swiss, saving two match points to defeat Federer in a memorable five-setter. Nadal would go on to defeat Djokovic in four sets for his first Open crown.
Rafael Nadal captured the US Open and BNP Paribas Open titles in 2013. (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)
Photo by: (EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP/Getty Images)
2011
The 2011 US Open played out in similar fashion to 2010. Once again, Nadal emerged, defeating Murray in four sets to advance to the final for the second consecutive year. And once again he was joined there by Djokovic, who had again saved two match points to defeat Federer in a five-set semifinal classic. This time, Djokovic would finish the job, topping Nadal in four sets for his first US Open men’s singles championship.

2013
Federer had fallen to the seventh seed for the 2013 US Open, setting up a potential quarterfinal against the second-seeded Nadal. Both advanced cleanly to the round of 16. There, the Spaniard played first and came through in four sets over No. 22 seed Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Federer, meantime, was going up against No. 19 seed Tommy Robredo, a player against whom the five-time champ sported a 10-0 lifetime record, having dropped just three of 25 sets the two had previously played. Adding to Fed’s favored status, Robredo was 0-7 in his career in US Open fourth-round matches, while Federer had won nine in a row at Flushing Meadows in the same round.
But Robredo played inspired tennis on that night, shocking Federer in straight sets. Nadal would easily dispatch his countryman in the next round, dropping just four games over three sets, en route to his second US Open title.
play video Cognitive Highlight: Juan Martin del Potro - Quarterfinal
2017
Nadal and Federer entered the 2017 US Open playing their best tennis in years, turning back the clock by sweeping the year's first three Grand Slams and establishing themselves as the clear co-favorites for the Flushing title. Both had a few hiccups early in the tournament but seemed to iron them out as the event wore on, breezing into the quarterfinals – just one round away from facing off in the Final Four.
Nadal went first in the quarterfinals and continued his strong play, easily defeating 19-year-old Andrey Rublev, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2. That meant they were just a Federer victory away. But the Swiss had a much bigger obsctale in his path: 6-foot-7 Argentine Juan Martin del Potro, the man who had prevented a Fed-Nadal final in 2009. He did so again this night in Arthur Ashe Stadium, stunning Federer in four set to advance to his first US Open semifinal in eight years and, once again, leaving the New York fans to wonder what might have been.

Laver Cup's first year was a success. More than 83,000 fans attended the tournament the O2 Arena in Prague, TV rights were sold in more than 200 countries and up to one billion people watched the action.

One of the founders of the event is Tony Godsick, Roger Federer's manager who runs the Team8 management company. Helped by partners like Tennis Australia and USTA, Godsick did a great job in promoting the event around the world, but admitted that he was also surprised at its turnout: 'We knew we were going to create something very special but we had no idea that in year one we would be able to have such a successful event.

The fans in Prague were amazing. The players seem to really enjoy themselves. The competition has been very close – the score might not reflect it but with the way we’ve set up the scoring system for the Laver Cup, there’s a chance that something exciting can happen on day three,' he told Sport360.

The scoring system worked very well, including the 10-point tie-break in place of the third set. Asked if tennis was a profitable sport, Godsick replied it was and also admitted thatthe Big Four domination has made the game very popular.

But there is also a dark side about it: 'I also think the fact that four players have dominated tennis for over 10 years hasn’t been the most successful thing for all of tennis because probably there are some tournaments that hear from their sponsors saying "Hey, do you have Federer, Nadal, Djokovic or Murray?" and you say "No", they say "Okay then why would we want to sponsor the event?" So I think, and you see it now, the next generation is coming.

Once there’s parity in the game a little bit more, I think the sport will be healthy.' He also added that Laver Cup will be successful even when Nadal and Federer will call it a career. 'You don’t need Federer, Nadal forever, but we hope we have them forever.'