Couch Umpire
Louie
Yinette PerezFederer defends his crown
July 15th 2006 07:12
MATCH SUMMARY:
Surprisingly for Wimbledon there was no rain delay in the final of the men's tournament, as it had in previous years.
In the interviews prior to the match, Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal, ranked #2 in the world, mentioned that he had no plans and would just try his best. Nadal, who leads the head-to-head against Roger 6-2, looked to win his first Wimbledon title whilst Roger was defending his grass court streaks and his 3 previous Wimbledon crowns. You could say that Roger Federer had everything to lose.
Roger started fantastically against his nemesis (for by now Rafa is finally noted as a rival to Roger, who had dominated the tennis circuit for the past 2 or so years), racing to a 6-0 first set win in about 20 minutes. The commentators noted, however, that Roger had also beat Rafael 6-1 in the first set of the French Open and as always with Tennis you should never not expect a comeback!
Roger must have choked after this because he dropped his first service game of the second set. The new Rafael looked set to win the second set, much louder more celebrative than his somewhat subdued first set performance. Perhaps he was just getting a feel of his game. Roger, however, didn't cease to give up on this set, always pressuring the teenager to hold his serve. Roger finally broke Rafael's serve and the game went into a tiebreak, which Roger won. 7-6(5).
The next set proved to be a battle, with lots of baseline rallying as well as mixing it up occasionally at the net. Both players refused to concede their service games and that set also went into a tiebreak. Rafael finally managed to win a set off the grass King, 7-6(2).
In the fourth set Roger powered into action, seemingly deciding to run at a higher gear than he had before. This was unusual because you'd have already expected Roger to play at a very high level against Rafael, in a Wimbledon final! Anyhow, he sped again to a 5-1 lead and had to serve for the match. The moment must have choked him again, probably with some doubt as to his ability to beat Rafael given his previous 4 straight losses against the teenager. Roger seemed to want to end the match impatiently and shanked 2 forehands, giving up his service game. 5-2. The Spaniard held his serve. 5-3. If Roger conceded his serve again Rafael would be back in the match.
This time, the Swiss took the game point by point. 15-0. 30-0. 40-0. Roger Federer won the set to love, game, set, match.
Roger's reaction to the win was quite different to that at the Australian Open, where he was recognised for crying at being overwhelmed at being given his Australian Open trophy by the great Rod Laver, who was the last person to win a tennis grand slam. This one was one of joy, yes, but it was also one of relief. He kissed the trophy several times, at many angles, for the photographers, but it was so evident that he wanted this win so much.
Roger Federer d Rafael Nadal, 6-0 7-6(5) 6-7(2) 6-3.
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Comment by SueHoney
He just won the rogers cup last week
Smooth, brilliant, graceful tennis..and a humble guy..
Love him!..(heh, more like obsessed already