After Rafael Nadal creamed Roger Federer in the French Open Final, Nadal seemingly gloated over Federer saying, "I feel very sorry for him." The proverbial gauntlet had been put down. The 2008 Final between Federer and Nadal was possibly the greatest tennis match of all-time. But for Federer there was a rust lining as he was not able to come up victorious.
Federer, who is chasing Pete Sampras's 14 Grand Slams and seven Wimbledon titles is two shy of both records with 12 grand slams and and five Wibledon titles. But just as Pete Sampras had to deal with the pesky Andre Aggasi, now Federer, 27 has the boon of fending off his nemesis Rafael Nadal, 22 who is five years younger and now has five grand slams of his own.
Federer was distraught after the match, lamented about the wind and the rain that forced a delays in a match that went five sets. Some thought the game should be called on account of darkness.
"I couldn’t see who I was playing against by the end," Federer said (speaking of the sun setting on Wimbledon).
Federer said he took "zero consolation" from losing to a top-notch player like Nadal. Federer said that losing Paris (the French Open) was "nothing" but that losing Wimbledon was a "disaster."
The disaster Federer spoke of was likely the fact that Nadal was stripping him of what had become his proverbial rite of passage: Winning Wimbledon. Federer was going for his sixth Wimbledon title in a row. The loss also ended his 65 game winning streak in the tournament.
Federer who does not have a coach may, was considered the consensus best of all-time. Federer did show shades of his championship form. After losing the first two sets, he came close to being the first player since 1948 to come back from 0-2 to win a Wimbledon Final. He fended off three match points and brought it back to 7-7 in the final set, before losing the deciding set 9-7.
The question is does Federer feel "very sorry" for himself, watching Nadal bite on the trophy. He did not seem to, as he determinatedly looked forward to getting ready for the Olympics and the U.S. Open. Tennis has a new high caliber heavyweight rivalry: Nadal vs. Federer. Both players have their hand on the torch. Who is going to take it?
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Rafael Nadal taking the torch from Roger Federer?
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