One month prior to the final dance at Wimbledon, Roger Federer had been severely beaten up in the French Open final by Rafael Nadal. He was emotionally and physically drained, outwardly cranky and wasn’t looking or sounding like a world No. 1 anymore.

The same could be said of top-ranked Amelie Mauresmo, who after another miserable campaign in her home country’s Slam, appeared headed for a fast fade.
But with a boastful burst of ethereal tennis in the Wimbledon final, the sweet-swinging Swiss is looking all the part of the king of the sport once again, while the fabulous Frenchwoman is now for the first time looking like a queen confident of a long reign.

In his most impressive performance all year, Federer faced down the ambitious Nadal 6-0, 7-6(5), 6-7(2), 6-3 and successfully defended his Wimbledon crown for the fourth consecutive year.

In the most significant victory of her career, Mauresmo won her first Wimbledon title by out-toughing the seemingly impenetrable Justine Henin-Hardenne 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

It was Federer’s eighth Grand Slam crown, tying him with Agassi, Connors and Lendl (as well as three others), and perhaps his most important one. He put a stop to the talk that he was only a paper No. 1 by mentally crushing the 20-year-old with a brilliant all-court attack on the fast lawns.

For the first time, Federer admitted that Nadal — who was 6-1 against him going into the match — had gotten into his head.

“A little bit,” Federer said. “The important thing was to keep my motivation up and not think about the losing. I needed to keep thinking, ‘Get up one more time.’”

He not only rose up during the fortnight, but reached new heights entirely, not dropping a set until the final in a very tough draw that included victories over the talented young Frenchman Richard Gasquet, Czech bomber Tomas Berdych, Croatian serve-and-volleyer Mario Ancic and the savvy Swede Joan Bjorkman.

But it was in the final where he had to prove that he understood how to beat Nadal and that he could create a workable strategy and then actually execute it.
Some thought that Fed would go into a pure serve-and-volley, chip-and-charge routine, but that style is not completely within his comfort zone, so he stayed with his base on grass.

On his own serve, he went for bombs both down the T and out wide, and if he didn’t register an ace or service winner, he followed them up with bullish ground strokes. On slower clay, it is much tougher to puncture Nadal when he’s running wide, but on grass, Federer’s balls, especially his forehand, have far more significant bite.

“I cannot see where he serves,” a flustered Nadal said. “He changes very good his angles. He can toss the ball and can serve here, he can serve there.”
On Nadal’s service games, Federer was never brilliant beyond the first set, but was able to get back nearly every type of serve the Spaniard threw at him and work himself into rapid-fire rallies.

Most important, he threw in numerous sliced backhands that stayed low and true and prevented Nadal from coming over the ball quickly and easily.
“The first set was tough because he’s playing different than the other guys,” Nadal said. “He played with more slice. He changed a lot. And after, I don’t see very well the strategy of the game, because he was playing different with his slice. He changed the rhythm. So it was tough.”

Federer came from a break down in the second set, fought his way into a tiebreaker and there, came up with a gorgeous forehand passing shot to win the breaker.

Nadal charged hard in the third set, not only crushing forehands and moving beautifully, but successfully rushing the net on key opportunities. The Spaniard played a near perfect tiebreaker, and it appeared then that Federer might be growing nervous. But he never wavered.

Nadal missed a sitter forehand volley and was broken to 1-3, and he was broken again to 1-5 when Federer smoothed a forehand volley winner.
Never one to given in easily, Nadal won the next two games, but Federer was way too mentally strong in the final game, coaxing his foe into three errors.
Another Wimbledon title was his, and he became the first man since the tournament’s two greatest players — Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras — to win four in a row.

“It was my greatest Grand Slam as an entire tournament,” said the 24-year-old Federer. “Having to play a lefty on grass who has given me trouble was hard. It was my best level by far.”

So now the rivalry is full on. Nadal still owns a 6-2 edge, but the Wimbledon victory gives Federer reason to believe that when play switches to North American hard courts, he may have found a couple of keys to unlock the puzzle.

“I’m very well aware of how important this match was for me,” said Federer, who also extended his grass-court winning streak to 48 matches. “If I lose, it’s a hard blow. He wins French, Wimbledon back-to-back. I was twice in the finals. That already hurts alone, but they were still great tournaments for me. It’s important to win a final against him for a change and beat him. At Wimbledon, I knew it was gonna be the place to do it the easiest way. Turned out to be tough, and it shows how much he’s improved. But I had the pressure he had at the French Open. I was trying to break his clay-court streak there. He tried to break my grass-court streak here. It was tough to play each other again.”

Before Wimbledon began, Federer wasn’t sure whether there was any way that he could close Nadal out, and now he knows that if he can keep his balls down, Nadal is capable of getting frustrated.

But know this: the victory wasn’t a blow out for Federer, and Nadal certainly thinks he got very close to beating the Swiss in England in “Mr. Roger’s neighborhood.”

The smooth Swiss versus the swarthy Spaniard is men’s tennis best rivalry since Sampras v. Agassi. It also could end up approaching McEnroe v. Borg, who met in back-to-back Wimbledon and U.S. Open finals in 1980 and 1981, with Mac winning three of them.

“When we play so often in finals, it adds something to the game, because people sometimes miss [rivalries] and sometimes they don’t have it and they want it, and when they have it, they don’t want it,” Federer said. “It’s kind of very strange how that goes. Now it’s great. He’s up-and-coming. I used to be the youngster. Now I’m sort of getting older. But he’s so young that it’s a great rivalry we’re having. That absolutely can help tennis.”

Once he gets on to slower hard courts, Nadal’s steely defense will again loom. He may still be the world No. 2, but one loss on a foreign surface isn’t going to completely shake his confidence.

“He’s unbelievable,” Nadal said. “Now he’s the best. [But] we’re gonna see in the future.“

Even though she has been No. 1 since February, Mauresmo has rarely been called “the best.” Prior to Wimbledon, she was still seen by some as an undependable choker, rather than as a confident closer.

But at the Big W, there was no dubious retirement from her opponent in the final, nor was there a complete technical collapse from her foe.
No, it was Mauresmo showing that she’s more than deserving of the top spot and that she’s no longer afraid to employ her aggressive style at crunch time. She seized control of the final in the last two sets with an authoritative serve-and-volley attack that brought back visions of the last woman to win Wimbledon charging the net, Jana Novotna.

And like the once mentally shaky Czech, Mauresmo finally came around on Centre Court, blitzing the cords with sheer abandon and not doubting her ability to win the title.

“I definitely wanted this win today. I don’t want anyone to talk about my nerves anymore,” said Mauresmo, who up until this year, was considered the women’s tour’s greatest underachiever. “It’s a great moment for me. This trophy is so special in the world of tennis. I’m very proud.”

And so she should be. The 27-year-old has won two Slams this year and put to rest any ugly contentions that the only reason she was able to beat Henin in the ‘06 Australian Open final was because the Belgian retired with a stomach illness.

That tournament victory was her first Slam crown, but not only did Henin retire, two of Mauresmo’s other opponents did, too. Some saw her title run as no more than pure luck, and after she collapsed at Roland Garros once again and Henin cruised to the crown, that opinion gathered steam.

But it’s buried now. Mauresmo showed during all of Wimbledon that for now, she’s the world’s best grass-court player. She drop-kicked her way through a tough draw, knocking out Serbian sensation Ana Ivanovic, ‘04 French Open champ Anastasia Myskina, ‘04 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova and then five-time Grand Slam champion Henin.

She heard what others were saying about her, but put it aside.

“It didn’t hurt because I was realistic, and I could see that sometimes the nerves got involved,” Mauresmo said. “That’s why it took me longer than others and why I’ve been working in different areas of this aspect. I learned about the experiences, to try to take things a little differently, to see tennis differently, not putting myself under much pressure.”

In the final, Mauresmo’s serve-and-volley routine was airtight, she defended well, kept her ground strokes under control and frequently changed tactics when things weren’t going her way. She played smart and displayed a tremendous heart.

	Just days after Li Na became the first Chinese player to make it to a Grand Slam singles quarterfinal, Yan Zi and Zheng Jie won their second doubles major of the year with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Su‡rez in the Wimbleon final.

Henin controlled the first set with a vicious ground attack and some amazing returns, but Mauresmo changed things up on her serve and began to locate it better. Henin could no longer read where she was going and had few opportunities to pounce on her second serve.

“She never came down on her serve,” Henin said. “She was serving great, lot of first serves. That’s been probably the biggest difference between us today.”
In the second set, Henin’s serving level began to drop, and Mauresmo was the more sure-handed player at net. It was obvious after Henin got broken to 1-2 that she was tiring and could only hope for a mental slide from Mauresmo if she was to win.

It never came. Even though she said her heart was jumping at 5-4, Mauresmo cracked two aces out wide, nailed a crisp backhand volley winner and then saw Henin dump a forehand into the net on match point. “Justine is known as a fighter, but she did not fight at certain moments,” her coach Carlos Rodriguez told IT. “She did not really want it. Amelie wanted this title more than Justine. Amelie deserves the title. She wanted to win the tournament more than Justine.”
Mauresmo raised her arms up, cried a bit, went to hug her coaches and friends, and then held the Venus Rosewater Dish way over her head.

“[I’m happiest] with the way I turned things around,” Mauresmo said. “You’re down 6-2 against Justine in the final of a Grand Slam. You are not in such a great position. You feel like, ‘Okay, what do I need to do? How am I going to change things? How am I gonna make it go my way?’ I really felt I pumped myself up. I let it out a little bit. I yelled a little bit. I was much more aggressive right from the beginning of that second set.”

France has not had a superior homegrown women’s champion since the great Suzanne Lenglen ruled the sport in the 1920s. But now they have Mauresmo, who has a very good shot at ending the year at No. 1. She has two Slam titles this year to one for Henin and with her creative attack, also has a fair chance of winning her first U.S. Open.

But before heading stateside, she’ll savor the victory. When told she was the first Frenchwoman since the legendary Lenglen in 1925 to hold the Wimbledon title, she smiled broadly.

“It’s very sweet,” she said. “Maybe if it came the first time I was in a Grand Slam final seven years ago, maybe it would have not had the same taste. Things come when they have to come. For a few months now, it seems to be working for me, and I finally found how maybe to handle the nerves a bit better. I really know much more now how to play tennis.”

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