Wimbledon legend John McEnroe described Sunday's 2008 Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal as the greatest match he has ever seen.
His words carry some weight, given that the last time such an epic Wimbledon clash transfixed the tennis world, he was centre court with racket in hand, rather than commentating about it from the broadcast booth.
The unbelievable five set Grand Slam drama between Federer and Nadal that ended in descending darkness on Sunday night provided a pinnacle contest in world sport just as Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe managed to produce a generation ago on the same hallowed turf.
Fittingly, Borg was also seated courtside last Sunday July 6 when Nadal collapsed to the ground in triumph after enduring four hours and 48 minutes on court and multiple rain delays with the scoreboard finally reading 6–4, 6–4, 6–7, 6–7, 9–7 in his favour.
Borg and McEnroe were undoubtedly as spellbound as the rest of us when Federer and Nadal strode onto court for a third consecutive Wimbledon final – the retired champions had only met for two consecutive Wimbledon finals.
Ice-cool Federer was bidding to become the first man to win six consecutive Wimbledon singles championships – McEnroe stopped the king of ice-cool Borg one match short of this feat.
On the other side of the net, the physically demonstrative Nadal was mirroring the verbally demonstrative McEnroe in attempting to win his first Wimbledon singles title after suffering a marathon five set defeat to the long-reigning champion the year before.
Tennis, like all sports, thrives on the epic contests that fleetingly occur between great champions at the top of their game.
As he approaches his 27th birthday in August, speculation on whether Federer has now passed the peak of his game and whether 22-year-old Nadal has yet to reach his will no doubt continue at least until August 25 – when the tennis year reaches the last of four Grand Slam events for 2008 at the US Open in New York. Months after his only defeat in a Wimbledon final, Borg retired at just 26 after again losing to McEnroe in the 1981 US Open final.
McEnroe later revealed he felt lost following this unexpected early departure from the sport of his keenest adversary.
So let's all hope for the sake of the game and perhaps the sake of Nadal that Federer keeps his post-match promise to the crowd and returns to play Wimbledon next year.
Feeds