至于本场比赛的直播，截至目前，我就只找到了这么一条信息：

The men's final will air on NBC live starting at 9 a.m. Eastern time on Sunday.

French Open Final Features Rivalry, History

The  tracks of sneaker soles left littered across the red clay were both remnants of the swift slides left behind by the world's top players speeding toward a clay-court collision and reminders of the surging streaks at stake in the French Open final.

Reigning Roland Garros champion Rafael Nadal carries an Open Era record 59 consecutive clay-court victories into Sunday's French Open final against World No. 1 Roger Federer. Nadal has never lost a match at Roland Garros and is undefeated in his three clay-court clashes Federer. The seven-time Grand Slam champion enters the final with a 27-match winning streak in Grand Slam play and continues his quest to complete a career Grand Slam with the confidence a champion who has never lost a Grand Slam final.

The rest of the world chases Federer in the rankings race, but on the court Federer finds himself playing catch-up against Nadal, who fought off two match points to subdue the Swiss stylist, 6-7, 7-6(5), 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(5), in last month's five-hour Rome final. That momentous victory followed Nadal's 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-6(5), win over Federer in the Monte Carlo final and his 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, decision in the Dubai final on hard court.

On the largest Grand Slam stage, the top-seeded Federer will try to dethrone defending champion Nadal in a French Open final featuring the top two seeds squaring off for the clay-court championship for the first time since 1984, when second-seeded Ivan Lendl fought back from a two-set deficit to defeat top-seeded John McEnroe, 3-6, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, 7-5.

He is widely regarded as the most gifted player to ever pick up a racquet, but Federer just can't seem to get a grip on Nadal's game.

The 20-year-old Spanish clay-court conquistador has won five of six career matches with Federer and has handed the Swiss stylist all three of his losses this year.

"I think that until now he's been playing the way he needed to play, and he's been winning his matches, which is the important thing," said Federer, who has posted a 44-3 record this season. "I don't see any weaknesses in his game."

Advancing to his fourth straight final with today's 6-4, 6-2, 7-6(7) semifinal victory over fourth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic, Nadal raised his Roland Garros winning streak to 13 matches. Nadal has surrendered only two sets in six tournament matches — dropping the opening set in a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 third-round win over 29th-seeded Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu and the second set in a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2 fourth-round triumph over 14th-seeded Lleyton Hewitt — the same number of sets he sacrificed leading up to the 2005 French Open final against Argentina's Mariano Puerta.

"I think this year I am better player, but I don't know if I am playing high level this year than last year," Nadal said. " But I know I am a better player this year."

Biceps bursting from his sleeveless shirt, the muscular Nadal strong-arms opponents with a tremendous topspin forehand he hurls while turning his torso into the shot like a light-heavyweight boxer throwing an uppercut. While he is a powerful physical force capable of draining the desire of opponent's whose legs and lungs are too taxed to offer resistance after repeated baseline rallies, Nadal is also a thinker on court who plays astute angles and is adept at forcing opponents to hit shots from awkward positions. Shrewd court sense, unsurpassed clay-court speed, complete commitment to his high-percentage shots and his insistence on playing the match at his tempo gives Nadal great match presence that can be intimidating to even the most experienced players.

"It抯 easy to see why he抯 won so many matches," 1999 French Open champion Andre Agassi said after falling to Nadal in the 2005 Rogers Cup final. "He抯 just a great mover on the court and he gets good power from stretched positions, so you抮e never sure if you have control of a point."

It is an unsettling feeling for Federer who has seen Nadal run down his would-be winners and respond with heard-turning retrievals. Federer crafted his own comeback in today's semifinals in rallying from a 3-6, 0-3 deficit by winning 11 of the next 14 games.

The top-seeded Federer advanced to his first French Open final when third-seeded David Nalbandian retired from today's semifinal with a strained abdominal with Federer holding a 3-6, 6-4, 5-2 lead. In advancing to his 14th straight final, the streaking Swiss now stands within one win of joining Hall of Famers Don Budge and Rod Laver as only the third man in tennis history to hold all four major championships simultaneously. A student of tennis history, Federer is bidding to become the sixth man in history to complete a career Grand Slam. In addition to Budge and Laver, Andre Agassi, Australian Hall of Famer Roy Emerson and legendary Briton Fred Perry are the only five men to win every major championship in their careers. Federer is excited at the prospect of joining an elite group of champions.

"It would be something quite incredible. (It) hasn't happened for such a long time," Federer said. "To have created this opportunity, it's unbelievable. So we'll see what happens."

A victory over Nadal in the French Open final would not only give Federer a career Grand Slam it would put the reigning Australian Open champion halfway to a single-season Slam. Winning the Grand Slam in a single season is such an exceedingly rare feat only five players in history have done it: Budge, Laver, Maureen Connolly (1953), Margaret Court (1970) and Steffi Graf, whose 1998 Grand Slam was dubbed "The Golden Slam" when she captured the Olympic gold medal after claiming all four major titles.

The owner of one of the most brilliant one-handed backhands in tennis history, the 6-foot-1 Budge was 23 years old when he made history as the first man to win all four majors in a single season in 1938. Budge surrendered just five sets in his four tournament triumphs and it was only after he beat his friend, frequent doubles partner and fellow American, Gene Mako, who also made history as the first unseeded player to reach the U.S. final, 6-3, 6-8, 6-2, 6-1, to complete the sweep of all four majors that the term "Grand Slam" was created. In addition to capturing all four major singles championships, Budge also collected four Grand Slam doubles championships in 1938, partnering Mako to win both Wimbledon and the U.S. titles and claiming the Wimbledon and U.S. mixed doubles championships with Alice Marble.

The lefthanded Laver, who like Federer was a supremely skilled shot maker capable of creating spectacular winners from any position on court, owns a record that will never be broken as the only man to sweep the single-season Slam as both an amateur (1962) and as a professional (1969). Laver's toughest test in winning the 1969 Australian Open came in the semifinals against a player who is a familiar face to Federer — his coach Tony Roche. Laver held off Roche, 7-5, 22-20, 9-11, 1-6, 6-3 in a match that spanned more than four hours and was played amid sweltering heat that soared above 100 degrees. Laver would score a straight-sets win over Andres Gimeno in the Australian Open final before beating Aussie rival Ken Rosewall in the French Open final, and scoring successive victories over John Newcombe in the Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals.

The owner of one of tennis' most well-known nicknames — "The Rochet" — has seen Federer soar to a 7-0 record in Grand Slam finals and believes he is completely capable of collecting all four majors to secure his place in history.

"I would think he can win (Roland Garros)," Laver said. "He has the makings because in Switzerland you're brought up on clay to a good extent. Winning on clay is a mind game and he has the anticipation and knowledge when he plays the ball. He reminds you of the old guard."

Many Grand Slam champions favor Federer's style because he combines traditional tennis strokes with the creativity, imagination, explosiveness and all-court athleticism of a player who is truly unique among today's top players in playing tennis on his own terms.

"I don't want to be cocky, but I do feel that I play beautiful tennis, when my movement and my technique come together I feel totally in balance on the court," Federer said. "In some ways I feel that I am playing tennis the traditional way, to be number one in the world with a one-handed backhand is something special."

The one-handed backhand is the one stroke all players who have scored single-season Grand Slam sweeps share; it is also the stroke Nadal has persistently pounded in dominating his rivalry with Federer. Nadal has targeted Federer's one-handed backhand with a barrage of heavy topspin shots that bounce shoulder high making Federer sometimes seems as comfortable as a man trying shrug a shot-put off his shoulder in backhand exchanges. When Federer tries to run around his backhand to strike his favored forehand on the slow terra battue, he can leave too much open court for the unerringly accurate Nadal to exploit.

So how should Federer approach the one player who can take him out of his comfort zone and force him to alter his game?

First and foremost, Federer cannot afford to come out in the final playing the type of tennis he showed in today's breezy first-set with Nalbandian when he shanked shots off his frame, played passive tennis and suffered from sloppy footwork. Federer must connect on at least 60 percent of his first serves and wisely take risk when opportunity presents itself and rather than routinely target Nadal's backhand, as many opponents have done during this French fortnight, Federer could consider starting some rallies going at the Nadal forehand in an effort to open the court and force Nadal to hit his two-handed backhand on the run, where his reach is more restricted than it is on his forehand side.

Though his sole win over Nadal came on hard court in the 2005 Miami final, Federer enjoyed success in the first set of February's Dubai final by selectively attacking net. Federer's primary advantages over Nadal is his serve, versatility, court position and ability to attack from more areas of the court. He's got to be willing to wield all those weapons in the final.

If Nadal forces Federer into playing the waiting game by imposing his pace of play and engaging the World No. 1 in longer rallies, look for Nadal to extended his Roland Garros reign. But if Federer can effectively locate his first serve and take the initiative in rallies from the first shot, he will extend his Grand Slam winning streak and claim the only major championship missing from his collection. The pick is Federer in five.