Federer ends Nadal's record 81 match winning streak on clay

Weird match today in the Hamburg Masters final, no close sets. Federer won 2-6, 6-2, 6-0.

It ends Nadal's amazing run of 13 straight titles in clay tournaments dating a couple of years. It was also Federer's first win on clay vs. Nadal after 5 losses. Nadal now leads the head-to-head series 7-4.

I don't know how to evaluate this. Nadal was obviously tired and ran out of steam. He barely survived a semifinal match vs. Hewitt. It probably takes the pressure off him going into the French Open with no focus on the winning streak.

But Federer claimed after the match he has discovered how to play Nadal on clay, that he was dictating today. I think he's trying to talk himself into that more than anything else. Especially to convince himself the decision to dump Tony Roche as coach was correct. This was Federer's first tournament since splitting from Roche a couple of weeks ago, after dropping a 6-4, 6-4 match to Nadal in the Monte Carlo final on clay.

finding out the results of that final. Nice win for Fed...and at least the streak is over..pressure if off..Nadal wins another French (I'll go out on a limb and predict that ;))

I was really happy how well Hewitt played...well I didn't see any of the matches but he had a few nice wins and took Nadal to the wire.