There aren’t enough words to describe how unbelievable Sunday’s Wimbledon men’s final was between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. That it featured three rain delays and more twists and turns which explained a tournament record four hours and 48 minute marathon featuring some of the most spectacular tennis ever played at the All England Club was a credit to just how special both the No.1 ranked 26 year-old Swiss and the No.2 ranked 22 year-old Spaniard played.
This just might’ve been the best match ever seen. Particularly with so much history on the line. Nadal dethroned the five-time defending champion ending one of the greatest runs ever. Federer’s 65-match win streak on grass finally ended as did his run of 41 in a row at tennis’ most prestigious grand slam.
It looked like Rafa would make it easy on himself by stunning Federer by coming back from 1-4 down in the second set breaking him twice in taking the final five games to go up a commanding two sets. But the proud champion who’s won 12 slam titles didn’t go down easily using the first rain delay to rally back fighting off triple break point to hold before taking a third set tiebreaker on a perfect ace out wide to make it interesting.
It would only get better from there as both players who had been slugging the ball as hard as possible making each other come up with ridiculous shots on the run while playing great defense elevated their elite games even more. Neither faced a break point in set four which was destined for another breaker.
This one was unpredictable as each server had problems winning points. When Nadal jumped out to a two mini-break 5-2 lead, the end seemed in sight with a changing of the guard about to happen. But not so fast as Federer got a rare double fault and then took the next point with a huge forehand to get back on serve. He would save one championship point and then be forced to save yet another in heroic fashion. Trailing 8-7 with Rafa serving, he came up with a very tough backhand pass down the line to ward off defeat. After going up 9-8, a service winner gave a pumped up Roger the set leveling the match before an even more excited crowd which loved every minute.
The quality was that special. Even when Federer dropped the first two sets by identical 6-4 scores, it wasn’t because he was playing poorly but rather spoke to how well Nadal was playing. The kid from Mayorga who’s won four French Opens in a row including three straight versus the world No.1 was much better on the bigger points. If there was a difference in the match, Federer only converted on one of 13 break chances while his younger opponent broke three more times in the same amount of chances (4/13).
Still, Federer had drawn even showing the heart of a proud champion who wouldn’t hand over his crown that easily and looked determined enough to complete a remarkable two set comeback against his equal. There was even more drama as the rain came again delaying play another half hour at two apiece in the final set at Deuce on Roger’s serve making one ponder if they’d be able to finish the match before darkness.
They would get back out there and Nadal again seemed on the verge of cementing that break which would mean what could’ve happened last year had he converted one of those couple of break points early in that fifth set. But Federer again valiantly fought them off to keep it on serve. Would he pull this off and give tennis history by becoming the first player to win six straight in over a century since 1886?
Nadal never blinked serving harder and at a higher percentage. When a Federer forehand went just long in the 15th game finally giving the hungry two-time runner-up the break. The question was could he serve out the championship? He setup a third championship point but yet again was thwarted by a great backhand slice return just out of his reach making it Deuce.
A big serve gave him a fourth opportunity to cash in and this time, Federer couldn’t pull another rabit out of his magic bag of tricks netting a forehand to give Nadal the thrilling victory for his first ever Wimbledon becoming the first Spanish male player to win there since 1962. He immediately slid to the ground by the baseline before getting back up to receive congrats from a gracious champ who really took the defeat tough. Who could blame him? He worked so hard to get back in it and was so close.
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