Wimbledon 2008-The Changing of the Guard

Six and a half hours after it began, the changing of the guard had been accomplished when a Roger Federer shot fell harmlessly into the net, ending a match for the ages, and quite possibly the best tennis match ever played. Draped in the red and gold Spanish flag, fighting back tears of joy and exhaustion, dirt on his back from the famed grass of Wimbledon's Centre Court, Rafael Nadal, the 22 year-old Spaniard took his place among the pantheon of tennis legends as the 2008 men's Wimbledon Champion. In becoming the first men's player to win the French Open and Wimbledon Championship in the same season in nearly 30 years, he also ended the reign and run of the legendary Roger Federer, the 26 year-old Swiss great who had won the last five Wimbledon titles, a stretch that matched that of Bjorn Borg, who was also the last man to win the French and Wimbledon in the same year back in 1980, before either of these competitors was born.

After a two set stretch that saw neither player break serve, but with the match in the 5th set and without the chance of a third straight tiebreak to decide the winner of the set and championship, someone would have to flinch, or more on point, someone would have to snatch the match and take the title. That someone turned out to be Nadal, who broke Federer for the fourth time in the match, but the first break since the third set, to go up 8-7 in the fifth and final set, allowing him to serve for the championship, and his rightful place in tennis and sports lore. After 58 games and two tiebreakers, the match stood all square at seven games apiece when Nadal broke through against the dominant service game of Federer, and one game later brought to an end a contest that no one could have wanted to ever come to an end.

Nadal was broken only once in the longest championship match played, which became even longer thanks to a nearly two hour rain delay that interrupted play late in the third set with the Spaniard up two sets to none and possibly on his way to a second consecutive straight sets victory over his greatest rival, and heretofore tennis' undisputed number one player. Before the rain, Federer had taken advantage of only one of twelve chances to break serve, and in fact would only break his opponent once in the match. The other thing that would do in the defending champ was his unforced errors, which he had accumulated before the delay at a better than two to one clip as his opponent. Yet after the break, Federer seemed to be revitalized, and while the errors continued to haunt him, his dominating serve and a litany of masterful passing shots mixed in with timely charges to the net put him in position for a modern era record sixth straight championship heading into the final set tied at two apiece. And for the first fourteen games of that final set, as it had for the entire fourth set, form held as neither player seemed likely ever to budge.

Time after time the Swiss champ would show signs of vulnerability, only to come storming back from 0-30 or 15-40 and protect his service game. Yet Nadal's own booming serve, which reached a Sampras-like 125 mph in the early going, held up time after time, proving that his game is suited for more than just the red clay of Roland Garros in Paris. Grunting like a man with something to prove, Nadal was a whirling dervish, a bundle of energy who covered the court from side to side with lightning quickness, a contrast to the seemingly effortlessness and cool calm of his older and more accomplished foe. Rafa, as he is affectionately known, was broken by Federer in the second game of the second set, and never again. Roger's best chance may have come in that set's eighth game, when the champ missed what looked like an easy kill shot, instead taking another unforced error, and missing one of the early opportunities that Federer referred to in his post-match interview as having cost him later on. At one point early in that second set after another missed shot, Federer looked to the heavens, seeming to question the wind, but one suspects he may actually have been looking to the tennis gods wondering if this would be the day in which the fortunes stopped smiling on him.

Indeed the fates of tennis turned their gaze and approval to the young Spaniard, and in doing so gave Spain its first title at the All England Lawn and Tennis Club in 42 years, and gave the Spanish sports aficionado a second major championship to celebrate in as many weeks, coming on the heels of the Spanish football squad's victory in the Euro 2008 tournament, the first such title for Spain in 44 years. Sports fans of all nationalities were treated to another chapter in what has become one of the great rivalries of the sport, on par if not surpassing that of Bjorg-McEnroe or Sampras-Agassi.

It is hard to say which winds were blowing harder, the local storm winds that may have moved a shot or two off its intended target, or the winds of change that came blowing into the famed stadium, intent on sweeping away, at least temporarily, the great champion Federer, and supplanting him with the new boss, the young and handsome star with the penetrating dark features and balanced game that would suggest he will be very difficult to remove from his new perch over the next few years. The sports fan can only hope that these two will stay healthy and focused, and that this rivalry will continue for as long as possible into the future, for if a rivalry such as this and a match such as this doesn't get one fired up about this sport, nothing will. In a sports era where it is all too easy to become jaded over steroids and questionable morals and behavior of athletes, it is heartening to see such great competitors do battle with class and vigor that hearken memories of a bygone golden age. Perhaps this is but one wonderful morning and afternoon in July that will fade with time, but perhaps it is more than that, maybe it is a return to what makes sports great and unlike any other form of entertainment. Let's hope for the latter, let's hope that the recent run that sports fans have had, starting with an all-time Super Bowl in February, the great mano a mano finale of the U.S. Open in June, and now a Wimbledon Final for the ages in July, are a harbinger of things to come in the world of sport. At least for one day, a grown man can feel like a kid again, full of wonder and excitement about the possibility of sport, and wondering if that old racket can be dug up somewhere out in the garage and dusted off after all these years. Bravo Messieurs Nadal and Federer, and thanks for the memories, here's hoping there are many more to come.