By Nick Georgandis
TennisNow.com

Roger Federer atoned for his embarassing defeat at the hands of Rafael Nadal at the Miami semifinals on Saturday, but it still wasn't enough to beat the No. 1 player in the world.

Nadal dropped the first set before rallying to defeat Federer 5-7, 6-1, 6-3 to advance to the finals of the Mutua Madrid Open in what most suspect will be a battle with world No. 2 Novak Djokovic.

It was the 23rd career meeting of Nadal and Federer, who have combined to win 25 of the past 30 Grand Slam singles titles dating back to the beginning of 2004.
After lasting just 78 minutes against his biggest rival at Miami, Federer took Nadal two hours and 36 minutes before falling, eventually being burned by Nadal's breaks after a spirited first-set win in which Federer hit 17 of 20 first serves for winners.

Nadal broke Federer four times in an easy second set to even the match, then saved two break points of his own to take the match in the third set, knocking 20 of 28 first serves for winners.

Nadal will now pursue his 46th career title, and 32nd on the dirt. With the victory, Rafa has now won 36 straight matches on clay and his career record is 217-16 for a .931 winning percentage.

Nadal is also seeking his 20th career Masters 1000 level title. This is his third straight final at Madrid, having lost the event to Federer in 2009 after beating Djokovic in the semifinals, and beating Federer in last year's final.

Federer fell to 28-6 on the year and has just one title to date. After winning 49 titles in the five-year span from 2003-2007, Federer has tallied just 14 since the beginning of 2008. This slow start, at least by his standards, has been common place since 2008. In each of those seasons, he had only one title to date at this time of year - Estoril in 2008, Madrid in 2009, the Australian Open in 2010 and Doha this season.

Since 2008, Federer is 9-15 against Nadal and Djokovic, but 211-31 against everyone else.