Roger Federer set to play ‘special’ final match of career on Friday with Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic the players to watch during the Rio de Janeiro Olympics as the tennis stars prepare for their respective men’s and women’s singles finals.
The Olympic champion is set to take on Federer for his 21st singles title when the two meet in the Rio de Janeiro Olympics final on Friday.
Federer is hoping to continue on his winning run.
Nadal and Djokovic will go head-to-head in the men’s semi-finals, while the women’s semi-finals are scheduled for the following day.
Djokovic is aiming for his second men’s singles slam. In the finals, he will face Argentine Juan Martin del Potro and Spain’s Rafael Nadal.
Federer is chasing his second singles title of the season, having swept past defending champion Andy Murray in Paris last week.
Federer, 37, has won 21 of the first 22 sets he’s played against Nadal on hard surfaces.
The Italian, who is set to play at the Olympics for the first time in his career, is chasing a career-high 11th major singles title.
The Rio de Janeiro Olympics start on Friday, with Federer’s quarter-final match against Novak Djokovic due to start at 2 p.m.
Djokovic is a two-time Olympic champion, winning the 2008 Beijing Games in tennis for a fifth gold medal and for the first time in Beijing, when he beat Federer in the final.
He won the 2012 London Games in tennis for a sixth gold medal.
Federer, who was a member of the gold-medal-winning U.S. Davis Cup team in 2010, said Nadal is the only player he has ever played against who is capable of upsetting him in a singles semifinal.
“There are only a handful of guys in the history of tennis who can beat me,
