The end of an era. Roger federer's unbeaten streak at wimbledon ended yesterday after a long battle between him and Rafael Nadal, with Rafael Nadal emerging as the new champion at Wimbledon. Roger's 5 year winning streak was over. "It hurts", said a smiling Roger, laconically, at the end of the 5 odd hrs game, whne John McEnroe asked him how he felt. Hidden in that smile was the regret that he would probably never be able to equal Bjorn Borg's record of 6 straight wimbledon victories, the highest ever.
But lots of admiration to Rafael, who played amazingly. If anyone deserved the cup over Federer, it was him. It was definitely an emotional moment for me and all my friends, who were all routing for Federer. Wimbledon was his, and he fought for it with all he had. If anyone could have pulled the game from a 2 set deficit to a 5 setter, it was him. Reminded me of the time when Federer beat Sampras in the 2001 wimbledon, and the commentator exclaimed "There will be a new king in Wimbledon." Its his superb skill and warm persona that makes him the undisputed champion of tennis and a favorite among all tennis fans. Winner or not, he is still the king at wimbledon, and an inspiration to tennis players worldwide.
"I will be back, next year", said federer. Will look forward to that.
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2 comments:
Yeah, I was quite heartbroken to read about the loss online. After the second rain break at 2 sets all, 2 games all and deuce in the 5th game of deciding set (what a time to have a rain-break), it was way past 1AM here. So, I decided to turn in for the day. I checked the site in the morning, all expecting to read about how Federer carried the momentum he got from the scintillating 4th set tiebreak to win the Championship, but no...Nadal had created history.
Good for Nadal, though. I reckon the 2 rain breaks evened things out in the match. The first one happened when Nadal was all over Federer, and RF must have taken some really deep breaths to have come out and claimed the 3rd and 4th sets. The second one came when RF was just about beginning to get into his groove and RN was looking as Vijay Amritraj put it, "like the player who thought his best chance of winning the match had gone."
Wonderful match, but nothing compared to the 2001 final between Ivanisevic and Rafter. That was the best I ever saw.
Yeah..!
2001 wimbledon seemed like it was fixed by destiny...everything just gave way for Ivanisevic.
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