(Photo From BBC)
I cover tennis very rarely, but for some reason I just was itching to watch today’s Wimbledon final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer. Nadal just obliterated Federer in the French Open yet again, but Federer was the 5 time Wimbledon champion coming into this match (yes, he’s won it the last 5 years), including 2 gripping victories against Nadal. Federer was on a 65 match winning streak on grass courts, and a win today would’ve tied Bjorn Borg’s record of consecutive Wimbledon victories, as well as most consecutive Wimbledon titles.
Nadal was looking for his first Wimbledon victory, and his first multiple Grand Slam year. It seemed to be Federer’s to lose yet again.
After some rain delays, the first two sets belonged to Nadal at 6-4, 6-4. In the 3rd and 4th set, both men held serve the entire way, and Federer won both sets 7-6, continuing his dominance in tiebreaker situations, destroying Nadal with his serves and quadrupling the Spaniard’s ace totals.
No tiebreakers in the 5th set, and with the set tied at 2-2 after Nadal held serve again, the rain poured down once again in London, causing another lengthy delay. Once play resumed, they continued to hold serve up until it was 7-7, and with break point within Nadal’s reach, Federer’s forehand was too long and he lost serve, down 8-7, first time it happened since the 2nd set.
Back and forth they went, and on the 4th championship point, Federer’s forehand shot crashed against the net, and Nadal collapsed onto the ground, celebrating a famous victory.
That’s just in a nutshell, if I went into detail I’d surely hit 5,000 words. The dazzling backhands, the 127 MPH serves, the slices, it was an incredible match, and this will go down as the greatest Wimbledon final in history in the minds of many (like me). It was the longest Wimbledon final match at 4 hours and 48 minutes (if you subtract the rain delays), and it the first final to end after 9:00 PM British Standard Time.
ESPN Classic will re-air this at 7:00 PM ET tomorrow, if you have the channel, I urge you to watch, because words cannot describe this one, you have to see it and enjoy every minute of it.
The Denver Nuggets, who were recently denied by commissioner David Stern the right to only play offense and not defense officially, continued their defiant ways, and traded away the lone player that seems interested in playing defense (and has actually won awards for defensive play!), Marcus Camby, to the Los Angeles Clippers for a 2nd round pick.
