Rafael Nadal: It’s a Really Special Match When I Play Roger [Video]

I’ll give equal post time to Rafael Nadal. The Spaniard has won 6 of his last 8 meetings with Roger Federer and overall he’s head 14-8. Tonight at the Sony Ericsson Open Miami the two will meet for the 23rd time in their career, first in America since 2005.

“When I go on court against him I feel it’s a really special match, especially because we play always really important matches,” Nadal said. “That makes the rivalry very, very special. I don’t know if rivals in the rest of the history of tennis played a lot of the matches, as many matches as we played. I don’t know how many matches McEnroe/Borg or Sampras/Agassi played, but we played a lot a lot times. So that makes the match really special always.”

As written, Nadal has never won Miami and of the four North American Masters 1000 events he’s been a champion only at Indian Wells. Last night Nadal won in three sets over Tomas Berdych. Rafael’s has only one title Tokyo since his career Slam at the US Open last September.

Here’s Nadal’s post-match on-court interview:

Here is a preview of the semifinals: