Rafael Nadal won his second Wimbledon title beating first-time grand slam finalist Tomas Berdych on Sunday 6–3, 7–5, 6–4. The victory was considerably easier than his first Wimbledon title when he beat the great Roger Federer 9–7 in the fifth set in 2008 in one of the greatest tennis matches ever played.
Nadal is now the undisputed No. 1 tennis player in the world. For the second time in his career, he pulled off the incredible feat of winning the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back.
“It’s more than a dream for me,” said Nadal in an on-court interview with BBC after the match.
The Spaniard has become a crowd favorite with his boxer-like warmup routine, not to mention his sensational play. “The crowd was always so amazing with me here. Thank you very much.”
He had to skip Wimbledon last year due to injury, which was one of the toughest moments of his career. The 2010 Wimbledon crown is Nadal’s eighth grand slam title (5 French Opens, 1 Australian Open, 2 Wimbledon titles).
Nadal was able to diminish Berdych’s powerful groundstrokes with his aggressive spins and slices. Berdych had difficulty handling Nadal’s lefty serve in the ad court on break point opportunities. The tall Czech player was unable to break Nadal despite having four chances.
“It was a great two weeks for me,” said Berdych. “He [Nadal] was really strong today. He’s shown in the last two months he’s the real champ. He deserved to win today.”
Perhaps the most telling stat in the match was Nadal’s conversion ration on break points. He broke Berdych four times on six opportunities. He was also nearly flawless at the net winning 15 of 19 points.
Berdych will move to No. 8 in the rankings when they are released on Monday.
A telling game was the first game of the second set wherein Berdych had three break point chances but he failed to convert. Nadal had made five unforced errors in that game but got away with it.
The second set remained on serve until the 12th game with Berdych serving down 5–6. Berdych was broken at love and Nadal took a 2–0 lead in sets.
Berdych was attempting to beat the world’s top three players in winning Wimbledon. His famous four-set victory over top seed Roger Federer in the quarterfinals was the biggest upset of the tournament. He followed that up with a straight-set victory over No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
Up next for Nadal is the conquest of the US Open. But, some rest and relaxation is in order first. “For sure, [I will] keep working to try to be in the US Open finally ready to try to win. But for sure US Open, it’s going to be one of my goals for rest of my career,” said Nadal on www.wimbledon.org.
“But right now is enjoy the beach, fishing, golf, friends, party, and Mallorca.”
Nadal is now the undisputed No. 1 tennis player in the world. For the second time in his career, he pulled off the incredible feat of winning the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back.
“It’s more than a dream for me,” said Nadal in an on-court interview with BBC after the match.
The Spaniard has become a crowd favorite with his boxer-like warmup routine, not to mention his sensational play. “The crowd was always so amazing with me here. Thank you very much.”
He had to skip Wimbledon last year due to injury, which was one of the toughest moments of his career. The 2010 Wimbledon crown is Nadal’s eighth grand slam title (5 French Opens, 1 Australian Open, 2 Wimbledon titles).
Nadal was able to diminish Berdych’s powerful groundstrokes with his aggressive spins and slices. Berdych had difficulty handling Nadal’s lefty serve in the ad court on break point opportunities. The tall Czech player was unable to break Nadal despite having four chances.
“It was a great two weeks for me,” said Berdych. “He [Nadal] was really strong today. He’s shown in the last two months he’s the real champ. He deserved to win today.”
Perhaps the most telling stat in the match was Nadal’s conversion ration on break points. He broke Berdych four times on six opportunities. He was also nearly flawless at the net winning 15 of 19 points.
Berdych will move to No. 8 in the rankings when they are released on Monday.
A telling game was the first game of the second set wherein Berdych had three break point chances but he failed to convert. Nadal had made five unforced errors in that game but got away with it.
The second set remained on serve until the 12th game with Berdych serving down 5–6. Berdych was broken at love and Nadal took a 2–0 lead in sets.
Berdych was attempting to beat the world’s top three players in winning Wimbledon. His famous four-set victory over top seed Roger Federer in the quarterfinals was the biggest upset of the tournament. He followed that up with a straight-set victory over No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia.
Up next for Nadal is the conquest of the US Open. But, some rest and relaxation is in order first. “For sure, [I will] keep working to try to be in the US Open finally ready to try to win. But for sure US Open, it’s going to be one of my goals for rest of my career,” said Nadal on www.wimbledon.org.
“But right now is enjoy the beach, fishing, golf, friends, party, and Mallorca.”
