Greatest Wimbledon Final Ever?

Yesterday, I may have witnessed the greatest Wimbledon final ever in the history of tennis. Roger Federer, the world's #1 lost to #2 Rafael Nadal 6-4; 6-4; 6-7; 6-7; 9-7. It was the longest match in the history of Wimbledon, spanning 4 hours and 48 minutes. It symbolized the changing of the guard as Rafael Nadal is probably the world's best tennis player after finally beating Federer on his turf after losing to him the last 2 years. Truthfully, Nadal dominated the first two sets because he won the most important points, converting over 50% of his break point opportunities as opposed to Roger going 1-13 for the match on break points. The one break he did get in set 2 was squandered as he was subsequently broken twice later in the same set. Then, I had to leave. We conceded that Nadal would probably win the match, so we hit the road from my friend's cottage, a 2.5 hour drive. About an hour into the drive, we checked the score on a cell phone and found that Federer had just recently taken the third set in a tiebreak. A rain delay bought us an hour and a half. We raced home and followed the match on a cell phone seeing Federer win the 4th set in a tiebreak. We rushed into her home in Grand Rapids only to see another rain delay. When play resumed 20 minutes later, an epic battle of two heavyweights, two champions in their own right battle it out. The shotmaking was incredible. Both held serve until the 15th game since there is no tie-break in the 5th set in Wimbledon. Darkness began to fall over London as the match spanned 7 hours including rain delays pushing the match to 9pm. Both players admitted that it was very difficult to see going into those last few games. Talk about a scene! It was one of those few moments in sports where I knew I was witnessing something historic.

There are few other situations in sports that create this kind of pressure. Think about being down by one with nothing left on the clock while you sit on the free throw line. It's all over in about 25-30 seconds as you shoot your free throws and the result is known. This match had that sort of constant tension every single point in the 5th set. In 24 years of watching sports on television, I've never felt my heart beating this hard for such a period of time and this includes all those Michigan-Ohio State games. I can't imagine what these guys felt.

So what does this all mean for tennis? Well, maybe a few more people will become interested in the sport, but unless these people watched the match, I really doubt it. The United States drives popularity in professional sports and unfortunately, our attention spans are too short to digest tennis. What happened yesterday will be forever etched in tennis lore and will never be forgotten by even the moderate enthusiast. So what does this mean for tennis? It provides great satisfaction for those who appreciate the sport. These enthusiasts can sit with quiet satisfaction, knowing their fanhood is not wasted and they caught a glimpse of something great to which the mainstream doesn't give the necessary credence.

He's still the No. 1, He's still the best. He's still five-time champion here. Right now I have one, so for me it's very, very important day. -Nadal

Probably later on in life, you know, I'll go, 'That was a great match,'" Federer said. "But right now it's not much of a -- how do you say -- a feel-good thing, or a positive thing to end this match. … I'm happy we lived up to the expectations. I'm happy the way I fought. That's all I could really do.