Nadal: First serve the key

Nadal extended his unbeaten run on clay to 67 matches with the victory which also saw him become only the second man in open era history to take three consecutive wins at the tournament, after Ilie Nastase who achieved the feat between 1971 and 1973.

"That is because I serve slowly," Nadal said of his 80 percent first serve success rate.

"I know that sometimes Roger plays better if you serve fast, because it's better for him when the point is going fast than if it's going slow.

"And if I serve slow I have more time for the next shot. So, well, my tactic is always to have a lot of first serve percentage inside against him.

"Because if I miss the first serve, with the second serve it's difficult because he attacks the point very well and it becomes very difficult for me to come back in the point."

Nadal was spotted practising his service for over 30 minutes after his 6-0 7-5 demolition of Tomas Berdych in the semi finals but still does not believe himself to be the favourite against Federer on clay despite never losing to world number one on the surface.

"I knew now you were going to have this question for me. I'm going to have to say the same thing: he's the world number one and he's the favourite."