Roger Federer matched the Wimbledon title record of Björn Borg in what — must have been (damn you Hellenic TV for not covering this!) — a great final game against a guy regular readers of this site should know I really like and respect, Rafael Nadal.
Federer’s achievement is massive if you consider how young he is and how many years he still has in front of him he’ll probably break all the records out there by the time he retires.As Rafael Nadal matures and improves the games are becoming all the more impressive: while last year Federer seemed to have it easy against Nadal, it seemed to me — from the BBC live coverage of the final — that it wasn’t the case this year. I guess the Nadal-Federer competition is bound to continue in the years to come in what seems to be a battle between two different and at the same time so competent tennis players. This year’s final is probably going to be remembered.
Without discounting Federer’s feat however, what really impressed me — once again — is Nadal’s persistence and performance given that he was playing for the whole week with practically no time off and really stood his own against Federer on a surface that is not exactly Nadal’s favourite. His remarks after the game showed great sportsmanship — it’s hard not to like this guy for what he has achieved. I’m sure that in the years to come Nadal will add Wimbledon to his titles.
This year Wimbledon was not without its surprises, either; Marion Bartoli’s win over world No.1 Justine Henin in the semi-finals was spectacular and completely unexpected (Bartoli lost to Venus Williams in the final and the latter claimed her fourth Wimbledon title).
