Saddest Day at The Championships

It is as I predicted it would be 2 years ago, when Roger Federer won his 4th Wimbledon title in 4 sets against Rafa Nadal. I prophesied then that Roger would have 2 more good years. That he had. But the Federer Express has undeniably lost speed. He was lucky last year to get away with his 5th (to tie Bjorn Borg’s all-time record) by the skin of his teeth, in a gripping 5-setter that, in his own words at the end of the championships, “could’ve gone either way.” This year’s Wimbledon proves my man, Roger, may have to relinquish his No.1 world ranking sooner than even he expects.

It was a thrilling match, though, much more so than last year’s final, and also could’ve gone either way. The score was a scintillating 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(8), 9-7 heart-stopper that pushed both players to their absolute best. Each adversary demanded no less. The match already is a classic and will, in my opinion, go down forever in tennis history as one of the best finals ever played.

Federer, in his own words, “tried everything” and, to his credit, pushed Nadal to his limits. But Nadal proved to be the better athlete, the more aggressive player on court, and the faster.

I almost wept (really) when Federer’s serve was broken 7-8 in the final set. I knew the inevitable would soon come to pass. But I consoled myself that I felt the same way in the fourth set, Nadal up at 5-2 in the tiebreak, and then afterwards when Nadal was denied 2 championship points. Federer lived to fight the final set. And so I thought, all is not lost, nothing would be certain until it was certain. And then it happened. Roger unleashed a ground stroke into the net at 7-8, 40-A, sending Rafa rolling on the grass in jubilation. It was over. And so perhaps, Federer’s reign.

I wanted so badly for Federer to prove to all and sundry that he is the greatest tennis player who ever lived – greater than the great Pete Sampras, Bjorn Borg, Andre Agassi. I know Federer, you see. I predicted he would be great even before he knew it, before he won his first Grand Slam. No other player in the history of tennis ever played the game with such pure talent as Roger did (No, not even Sampras), I always said. And through the years, I nurtured a deep reverence for the man whose career I had so religiously followed. So I felt something greater than disappointment when the “changing of the guards” occurred. It was grief. And bitter regret. Roger has not won the French and may never do. The only mark against an otherwise seamless career as THE tennis superstar of the 21st century. And now he has lost Wimbledon – The Championships – the most prestigious of all – on the grass on which he was once king.

Tennis will never be the same for me.