COVER STORY: AUGUST 2007

By Matthew Cronin

 

WIMBLEDON — He’s as smooth as silk when moving side to side and he may not show much emotion when he’s keenly constructing points, but if anyone is still questioning Roger Federer’s guts, its time to swallow those thoughts forever more.

In the most difficult of all his 11 Grand Slam title runs, Federer dug deep into Wimbledon’s Centre Court, yelled out to the ghosts of champions past to come to his aid and overcame his nemesis, Rafael Nadal, 7-6 (7), 4-6, 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-2 in the final.

“It’s my first Grand Slam final I won in five sets,” said Federer, who wept in relief. “That alone is going to get emotions out of you because you’re drained toward the end. You fought your heart out the whole way. So in the end you want to come through as the winner because otherwise it’s so disappointing because you came so close.”

With Bjorn Borg nervously watching from the Royal Box, the Swiss tied the great Swede’s record of five straight Wimbledon victories when on match point, he courageously ripped an inside-out forehand return, followed it up with vicious forehand down the line and then hammered an overhead for the victory.

Due to his artistic shotmaking and genius strategic maneuvering, Federer isn’t often given credit for how tough he really is, but this final- round victory was all about heart and inner fortitude.

Read more … First Serve Venus Williams

Much like Borg did when he had to go to 8-6 in the fifth set to overcome John McEnroe to win his fifth straight Wimbledon crown in 1980, Federer’s back was firmly against the wall against Nadal and at times during the fifth set it looked like he would snap, but he kept drawing on his vast reserve and finally mentally out-toughed the muscular Spaniard. “The record was on the line and everything just adds up and even puts more pressure on you,” said Federer, who bested J.C. Ferrero in the quarters and Andy Roddick’s conqueror, Richard Gasquet, in the semis. “I knew that was a big occasion, maybe the biggest occasion of my life so far on a big stage. I was happy to come through as the stronger.”

Nadal had tortured Federer all day long with wicked lefty slice serves and heavy topspinned forehands into his backhand, blinding speed and see-you-later passing shots. While Federer served wonderfully most of the match, cracked more than a few blinding forehands of his own and contested headier tiebreakers, he lost his cool in the fourth set due a to questionable call (he was so peeved that asked the chair umpire to turn off Hawk-Eye) and the Swiss looked like he might come undone, even though Nadal was treated for a knee injury after the fifth game of the set.

As much as Federer wavered, he never completely lost faith and continued to go for his shots, while three-time French Open champion Nadal let some critical chances slip.

Holding his second break point with Federer serving at 1-1 in the fifth set, Nadal sped to his right into the doubles alley, quickly planted his feet and let a huge forehand fly down the line. For a split second, it looked like the ball would find the line, but it hooked just wide.

Nadal would have another two break points in the fifth game, but Federer came up with a Samprasesque high hopping kicker on a second serve and then banged a service winner down the tee.

It was Nadal’s favored nuclear forehand that might have won him his first Wimbledon crown, but for once on a big point in the final of a major, he couldn’t contain it. He had Roger’s back so firmly planted against the wall that it seemed like the Swiss was about to mentally implode on grass for the first time in his career. But Nadal couldn’t pull off the shot and later admitted that was his best chance. “It was tough for me because I have two 15-40s in the fifth,” Nadal said. “ One was a big chance to break. I know if I have the break in the fifth I have very good chances to have the title."

The Spaniard — who had a hellish fortnight due to unending rain delays of his matches, which included five-set victories over Robin Soderling and Mikhail Youzhny and quicker ones over Tomas Berdych and Novak Djokovic — sensed that his opportunity was gone, and he faded in the next game, when Federer broke him to 4-2 with an amazing forehand winner down the line on a dead run. Nadal kept chugging, but Federer had already raised his game to another level and stepped on his great rival to close the contest out with a series of blinding shots.

Had Nadal been able to stop Federer’s streak — which now runs 34 matches at the Big W — tennis would have been turned on its head, because it would have been the first time that Nadal (who still owns a 8-5 lifetime edge over the Swiss) had taken him down at a fast court major. But in the end, Federer was the better player, but only by a loose hair on his cream colored jacket.

Still, the rivalry has taken on Borg vs. McEnroe, Sampras vs. Agassi proportions and is elevating the game’s popularity. “I win my share. He wins his,” Federer said.

“It’s a good rivalry. We’ve been at the top for over a hundred weeks together. It is like building up to one of maybe the great rivalries.

But we sometimes haven’t lived up to the expectations in the past, in our matches in majors especially.

Maybe that was a bit of a problem.

But you can’t always play five-set thrillers. I’m happy it happened today.

I left as the winner. It was perfect."

With his 11th Slam title, Federer tied Borg and Rod Laver for the third most ever. At the young age of 25, he’s just one behind Roy Emerson, and is three behind all time great Pete Sampras . He’ll be favored going into the U.S. Open again, where he’ll be seeking his fourth straight title. He may not be the best ever yet, but he’s making a serious push for it and if he continues to out-tough fields like he did at Wimbledon, he could conceivably tie Sampras next year.

The American won his 11th Slam title just a month before he turned 27, while Federer won his just a month before he turned 26 and is a year ahead of Sampras’ pace. Whether he’ll be like seventime Wimbledon champion Sampras and avoid serious injury is an open question, but there’s no doubt that he has the talent to break the record. “The best player of the history has 14,” Nadal said. “He has 11. So he’s very close. He’s still playing unbelievable. Anyway, even if he’s going to win 14 or 16 or 13, in my opinion, the tennis level is the best in history.”

Unlike many champions, Federer is quite aware of history and just how far he has to go to achieve his goals. He has Sampras in his sights and he’s taking dead aim at him, which shows just how serious he is about ending his career as the god of his sport.

“Obviously, it’s on my mind,” Federer said. “ But it’s not like I have to beat this record otherwise it’s no good. Sampras is maybe the greatest player we’ve ever had. So to come out and break his record, it’s not the easiest thing. It took me five Wimbledons and three Australian Opens and three U.S. Opens just get close to him. So it shows you what a great player he was. I don’t know how much longer I can keep it up, but I definitely feel like I’m mentally and physically fit to go on for many more years. I’d love to equal his record. To be on the same level as Sampras, my former hero in a way, is already very nice, but I’m not there yet.”

 

© 2007 INSIDE TENNIS All rights reserved.
All photographs, text and graphics, appearing on the Inside Tennis web site are protected by copyright.
Any republication, retransmission or reproduction or other use is prohibited without express written permission of Inside Tennis.