Tennis: The Wimbledon Final – What a Game!

It’s over, a great Euro’s and now a brilliant Wimbledon, can Beijing live up to these two sporting events? The Wimbledon final was fantastic! Definitely has its place in the history, lots of emotion in the game with two players who rarely show that much emotion apart from the odd fist pump. Nadal has really matured this tournament and you could see how focused he was until the end, Federer was the same, but you began seeing in the great mans face the pressure that Nadal imposed on him.

The game started off rather slow for Federer as he hit many unforced errors and didn’t look settled one bit as Nadal played perfectly and got the first break, it was quite shocking to see no improvement from Federer in the second as he broke Nadal’s serve in the second game of the second set and then got broken twice in the same set to go two sets down.

At this point, Federer was not playing at his best and Nadal was playing at his absolute best, things did not look good for Federer as in the third set Nadal seemed to be dominating Federer’s serve but still not managing to find the break, and Federer had no impact at all on Nadal’s serve. When the game came to tie-break with Federer’s record at tie-breaks he became favourite to take the set demolishing Nadal in and taking moment into the fourth set.

The fourth set ended up being the same as the third, at this point the match was tied 2 sets all 6-4, 6-4, 6-7, 6-7 with Nadal the former. The fourth set tie break did have the excitement of a championship point, and on the championship point Federer responded, a few baseline exchanges and Nadal uncharacteristically came into the net and Federer hit the greatest backhand down the line whilst he was on the run I have ever seen, under the most immense pressure that if he misses it would be game over, fantastic point, and it rose Federer’s confidence to take the fourth.

The proposition of a five set match was a mouth watering idea for the neutral, and the fifth set was one of the most emotional sets I have ever seen, both players picked up their game, but I have to say Nadal reached further, he played phenomenally in the last set and a sad thought but he outclassed Federer, he dominated all the games until he managed to break him right at the end.

I have to admit the reason why I tipped Federer to win yesterday is because I so desperately wanted him to win, I really believe he has the potential to be labelled as the greatest ever once he retires and 6 in a row could have done that for him. I felt a real disappointment when he lost, but I was pleased that another great tennis player won it instead. Hats off to Nadal for the greatest performance of his career, a deserved winner.

Tennis: Federer Vs Nadal

The third consecutive final between Federer and Nadal at Wimbledon is set for tomorrow, and it’s the one every wanted. Last year was one of the most exciting finals I have ever seen at Wimbledon between the world number 1 and 2, a combination of hard hitting and classy winners just made it such an amazing game to watch.

The improvements Nadal has made to his game since his defeat to Federer last year have been phenomenal. His return of serve is always the reason why he is one of the best, but now his further improvements of his service game and backhand has led to him to destroy any opponent in his sights. With victory at the queens, Nadal’s confident and game is clearly reached it’s highest peak on grass, tomorrow has to be his day…

But…

I have to applaud Federer, with all the criticism and doubt that he’s had this year, and to come back with his pure focus and controlled way of playing, not dropping one set on his road to the final is almost like normal service resumed in the great man’s world, but can he win tomorrow?

I believe if both players play at the top of their game, then it is way too close to call, but if I have to predict, Federer could just edge it.