4 1/2 hours before it, Roger Federer was still considered by most as the greatest and most complete tennis player ever, on the brink of equalling Pete Sampras' majors record, a matter of time before he surpasses it.
Federer didnt just win matches, tournaments and grand slams, he made them look easy. he obliterated opponents. he has every weapon every other player has, it's tough work to pinpoint a glaring weakness in him, and he delivers breathtaking tennis. he wins on every surface, and on clay only a certain young Spaniard is his nemesis. he went for a monster record 237 weeks at the summit of tennis' best, able to finish years of playing hundreds of matches with only a couple of losses, an incredible achievement in the modern era.
Wimbledon 2008. they called the grass there his second home. and the player who's consistently beaten him on clay, finally did it. Rafael Nadal took the grasscourt major and ended a legendary run. he followed it up with the Olympics gold, and tennis' landscape has thus been altered.
this is no more a one-man dominance. if Federer was so unbelievable and seemingly peerless, how good is Nadal?
4 1/2 hours later, suddenly Federer isn't divine anymore. either he has faltered, or someone has caught up.
for the first time in a long while, Federer started a match not being the higher seed and had to serve second. it was a funny feeling and sight. and he piled onto watchers that eccentricity by playing and feeling inferior. it felt like he came in as underdog, and that it'd take lots of strategising and a monumental effort to beat Nadal.
and yes it was tough. as the "most complete player ever", Federer actually required a game plan to win, while Nadal seemed like he just needed to play his own game.
and that was considering Nadal had played a 5 1/4 hours semi-final 27 hours after Federer played his. he was supposed to be tired. Federer was supposed to play a drop-shot game, or even if in Nadal's famed baseline rallies, he could tire out.
in the end it all didnt matter. whatever Federer tried, Nadal returned even stronger. he had no chance at rallies, no chance playing baseline, managed a paltry few drop-shots, volley game rarely good against Nadal's precise passing shots, and backhand was exposed time and again. only Federer's refined forehand was wielding magic, on a night he acknowledged his deadly first-serve was needed, but didnt come.
they say against someone like Nadal, who never gives up any point, u only make it if u hit winners. that's how Federer can beat him. and it wasnt that he didnt try. he dished out 71 winners against Nadal's 50. yet still lost. by the end of the epic battle, Federer had won 174 to 173 points, yet still lost the match and championship. it all came down to unforced errors, service and break points. Nadal is a man who makes errors look like they're not human and not supposed to happen.
almost out of nowhere, Nadal the mortal has prevented Federer the immortal from speeding away. grabbing him from below and dragging him down. he has derailed the Federer Express. ending his Wimbledon relationship. gatecrashed his hardcourt kingdom.
i think it suffices to say what i've said. let the most respected writer/columnist of mine continue.
Rohit Brijnath, Straits Times
"Roger Federer can pick the place, the time, the circumstance. He can take Rafael Nadal to the North Pole, dress him in a thin tuxedo, and allow him one serve. It doesn't matter. Federer will still lose. In his mind, right now, he simply doesn't believe he can beat the Spaniard.
[Nadal] beat the Swiss after running for 5hr 14min in the semi-finals and then 4hr 23min last night. He has beaten the Swiss in five of the seven Grand Slam finals they have played. And he has made us rethink Federer's status as the greatest ever and elevated himself into the argument. At 22, he has won six Grand Slam titles. At the same age, Federer had two.
Nadal won this match, but Federer will also believe he lost it. Perhaps he wept because he needed his first serve, needed cheap points against a maniacal baseliner, yet had a miserable first-serve percentage of 52. Perhaps Federer wept for all the chances he had, but could not take. He lost break points and could not capitalise when he led.
When Nadal runs, he is driven by muscles, and youth, but also by a desperation that provokes him into greatness. He hit so many staggering winners from so many unlikely places that Federer by the last set was simply resigned. Everyone in the fifth set fears Federer, but Federer evidently fears Nadal.
[W]ith the match finely balanced, [Federer] needed to embrace risk yet chose passivity. Instead of stepping into a few returns, as Nadal did on breakpoints, he engaged in rallies that played to the Spaniard's strength. Had he grabbed the third set, and gone up two sets to one, victory was not yet assured, but the Swiss has a powerful reputation as a frontrunner.
It was a match as thrilling as it was deeply poignant. There is on this hardy land of brusque heroes a great affection for Federer, and his tears at the microphone left a stadium in a sort of mourning. They had lifted him, cajoled him and then, as he broke down, embraced him with their cheers. It seemed almost like a farewell. One man's time is passing, but another's has come."
yes, what we're seeing is the best player in the world unable to beat another player at his own game no matter how he tried. who is to say now who is the best player in the world. the legend or the current numero uno?
at the rate Nadal is speeding, u cannot bet against him breaking Sampras' record or even Federer's new mark. it doesn't matter Federer is trailing Nadal 6-13 in head-to-head, the important figures are that Nadal has won five of the seven grand slam finals between them. if Federer had topped those Sampras would not be the same man anymore.
a year ago, Federer was down, and the Australian Open looked a long shot. but he was still the best around. then, Nadal played second fiddle and was only famed as the clay king. today, Nadal holds court over three surfaces, something Federer has never done, is the Olympic gold medallist, and has the chance to do the tennis Grand Slam this 2009. the power has really shifted.
it was the first time i saw an emotional Federer. a player known for his steeliness in the toughest times. never reacting to a lost point, always looking ahead. a player who once knew that if he played to his best, he was unstoppable. the normally calm Federer was annoyed and dismayed when he made poor decisions and returns. he was shouting "come on!" much more and conspicuously so when a point went his way. and he teared uncontrollably when he received his runner-up plate. a true champion who hates losing. he said it's the worst feeling, standing there infront of thousands with nowhere to hide. like a public shaming. that's how losing is to him.
maybe Federer will win the most number of grand slams. maybe he will be known as the best ever for quite awhile. but maybe his era has ended. people will probably remember this era as the Federer-Nadal rivalry, two individuals who stood above the rest. not the one defining man that is Federer.
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