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For five sets, through rain, wind and descending darkness, the two men swapped spectacular shots, until, against a slate sky, Nadal earned the right to fling his racket aside and collapse on his back, champion of the All England Club at last.
"Is impossible to explain what I felt in that moment, no?" Nadal said after accepting the golden trophy that has belonged to Federer since 2003.
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Rafael Nadal of Spain poses with his trophy after the men's singles final match against Roger Federer of Switzerland at the Wimbledon tennis tournament in London, capital of Britain, on July 6, 2008. Spain's Rafael Nadal won the match 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7, 9-7 and claimed the title. |
The No. 2-ranked Nadal ended No. 1 Federer's five-title run at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament by the slimmest of margins, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7, last night. Nadal is the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win Wimbledon and the French Open in the same season.
"Probably my hardest loss, by far," said Federer, who was trying to become the first man to claim six consecutive Wimbledon championships since the 1880s.
Nadal stopped Federer's streaks of 40 victories in a row at Wimbledon, and a record 65 in a row on grass, thereby stamping his supremacy in their rivalry, no matter what the rankings say.
"Look, Rafa's a deserving champion," said Federer, who hadn't lost a set all tournament before Sunday. "He just played fantastically."
And that tremendous play lasted a record 4 hours, 48 minutes, longer than any of the classic Wimbledon men's finals it will be recalled alongside, including Borg's five-set victory over John McEnroe in 1980.
Nadal, the first Spanish man to triumph at the All England Club since Manolo Santana in 1966, managed to regroup after blowing a two-set lead, managed to recover after wasting two match points in the fourth-set tiebreaker. He earned his fifth Grand Slam title, but first away from the French Open.
Nadal did it by showing fortitude on his serve, saving 12 of 13 break points. He did it by breaking serve four times, twice as many times as Federer lost serve in his previous six matches combined. And Nadal did it by being better from the baseline, winning 24 of 38 points that lasted 10 or more strokes, according to an unofficial AP tally.
"He was rock-solid, the way we know him," said Federer, who hit 25 aces. "He's definitely improved his game."
Borg and Santana watched from the front row of the Royal Box at Centre Court, which next year will have a retractable roof. Perhaps Mother Nature wanted one last chance to leave her mark, delaying Sunday's start by 35 minutes with rain. Showers again caused a delay of 1 hour, 21 minutes late in the third set, then another of 30 minutes at 2-2, deuce, in the fifth set.
When action resumed at 8:23 p.m., it already was tough to see, and the players traded service holds until 7-7. That's where Nadal finally broke through, as Federer's forehand really began to break down. A forehand into the net gave Nadal his fourth break point, and a forehand long conceded the game, the first break of serve by either man since the second set.
Nadal still had to serve out the match, though, and he still had to avoid the sort of nerves Federer noticed when his opponent led 5-2 in the fourth-set tiebreaker.
"I played terrible there," said Nadal, who double-faulted to 5-3.
Down 6-5, Federer erased a match point with a 127 mph (204 kph) service winner. Down 8-7, again, one point from losing, Federer hit a backhand passing winner.
A forehand winner put Federer ahead 9-8, and when Nadal missed a backhand return, the match was even. Federer jumped and screamed, and the crowd of about 15,000 joined him.
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