Wimbledon Final

After spending an entire Sunday on the couch tuned into you know what (I even saw the Borg-McEnroe final archive they were showing when it was raining) I decided to give writing match reviews a shot. So here goes nothing.

Disclaimer: Excuse me for what might seem like the unrefined use of tennis jargon at places below.

I remember seeing Nadal’s post match interview. The interviewer called the match “arguably one of the greatest matches in the history of Wimbledon finals”. Why be so politically correct ? John McEnroe called it “the greatest match I’ve ever witnessed” and I couldn’t agree more. The two best players in the world vying for the most prestiguous Grand Slam title ensured the quality of tennis was superlative. The setting was just right, an overcast afternoon at Centre Court, Wimbledon. The scoreboard at the end of the match (6-4,6-4,7-6,7-6,9-7) and the fact that four championship points (literally heart-stopping) were played (including the one that Nadal finally converted) leave me with little words to describe the kind of thriller the match was.

Speculations of a ‘mental block’ Federer had developed against Nadal after the French Open final thrashing, were rife when Federer started sluggishly, losing the first two sets 4-6,4-6. Then came the comeback of a champion. The third set rolled into a tiebreak, with Nadal just 2 points away from victory at one moment. But Federer’s dominating forehands and aces won him the tiebreaker 7-5.

The fourth set too went in a tiebreaker, with two match points for Nadal. Another champion performance by Federer in defending those and winning the tiebreaker meant the match was destined for a fifth set. The amazing thing about these players at this point was the mind numbing pressure on them in these tie breakers. Watching them made me so nervous, I wonder how it must’ve been for them. For Nadal it not only meant his first grass victory over Federer but also his first non-clay court Grand Slam title. For Federer it not only meant the end of a 65-match dominance over grass the kind of which the world hasn’t ever seen before but also losing out on breaking Borg’s record of five consecutive Wimbledon victories. On every match point in the fourth set the camera would close up on the players’ faces enabling us to see them furrow brows and clenche jaws in nerve straining focus. It suddenly struck me that this was more nervewracking than any movie, any IPL match I have ever seen, one of the best things I’ve ever seen on TV.

The fifth set should and will go down in history as one of the finest contests in sport. Both players remained rock solid under the pressure until they were locked 7-7. The game swayed from one to the other after that as Federer saved the thrid championship point. It was getting dark in the Centre court as the face-off reached another match point for Nadal. The Spaniard fell to the ground, flinging his racquet as Federer netted a forehand concluding what many are calling a ‘change of guard’ in tennis. We’ll consider that in a moment, but it was certainly the kind of match that must’ve added millions of tennis fans to the world.

A look at the unforced errors Federer made reveals that this was far from the best tennis he can play. Maybe the ‘mental block’ speculation has an element of truth in it. Firstly it’s Nadal who has the better record of 12-6 against Federer. Second comes the thrashing Federer took at the hands of the Spaniard at the Roland Garros final (Nadal won 6-1,6-3,6-0). A combination of these two factors can wreak havoc on one’s confidence. After all Fedex is a human being. But this surely isn’t something that’s happen for long, especially to a champion like Federer. As he put it himself ,”It’s a pity I couldn’t win it but I’ll be back next year”.