Against all other opponents, Federer plays with his eyes wide open, focuses straight ahead, and with his mouth turned upward. But when he faces Nadal—and only Nadal—he tends to frown and look downward. And it wasn’t just when he was losing. Braden saw that Federer assumes this facial expression even in warm-ups, before the match has started. Never mind the well-lubricated sports cliché that Nadal was “in Federer’s head.” He was in his face too.
