Wimbledon 2008

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What a game, well played both of them. :hyper: And now this may be a real rivarly coming. Go Nadal !
 
I am SO happy that Nadal won.

I really did not want Federer to break Borg's record for number of Wimbledon's in a row. Now in the history books, Borg and Federer will be next to each other, instead of Federer being above. It's not likely Federer will ever the chance to win a sixth Wimbledon in a row again.

I actually hope Federer loses at the U.S. Open, so he can finally have a full winless year in terms of majors.

I also hope he never breaks Sampras's record...but he probably will.

Congrats Nadal!
 
I actually hope Federer loses at the U.S. Open, so he can finally have a full winless year in terms of majors.

...why would you want him to have a winless year? I'm amazed at the kind of hatred this guy gets from people. He is a brilliant, classy player, and he fully deserves all of the success he has had over the past couple of years. And yes, he even deserves that opportunity to break records held by the former greats.

Anyway, that was easily one of the best tennis matches I've ever seen. Maybe even THE best. Roger wasn't playing all that well in the first two sets, but once he picked up his game again, the quality of the match simply skyrocketed. The shots that he and Nadal were capable of coming up with - even after four hours in the fifth set - were incredible. It was so close. Devastating for Roger and his fans, of course...heh, I'm not afraid to admit that I felt like bawling when I saw him lifting up that pissy little tray instead of the trophy. So gracious in defeat... Even ol' Johnny Mac sounded a bit choked up when he was interviewing him inside the building. You've got to hand it to the Nadal though. He was just a little bit better than Federer today.

Congratulations to Rafa. :) He finally did it! I'm happy for him, even though I wanted Federer to get his sixth in a row. You could see how much it meant to him to be able to win it. Will he be able to do it again? Next year can't come soon enough...

God, I love Wimbledon. :love:
 
...why would you want him to have a winless year? I'm amazed at the kind of hatred this guy gets from people. He is a brilliant, classy player, and he fully deserves all of the success he has had over the past couple of years. And yes, he even deserves that opportunity to break records held by the former greats.

It's the same "hatred" that successful athletes and teams such as Michael Schumacher, the New York Yankees and to a lesser degree Tiger Woods received in their heyday (Woods, of course, is still in his prime). I suppose people become tired of seeing the same people winning over and over. I know that people were rooting against Schumacher when he was in the midst of 5 consecutive Formula One drivers' championships whilst with Ferrari.

What people don't realize is that one day they'll be able to tell their kids and grandkids that they saw the great Federer in his prime, when he won five consecutive Wimbledon's. So they should appreciate athlete's exploits.
 
What a great match that was!

:applaud:

I loved Nadal climbing all-over the broadcast booth and the clock deck and everything. Really fucking cool. I have to admit to rooting for Fed, though.

I've watched Fed ruin a number of Roddick's bids for Grand Slam titles so I wanted to see him ruin Nadal's chance here, too. Oh well. They both deserved it.
 
...why would you want him to have a winless year? I'm amazed at the kind of hatred this guy gets from people. He is a brilliant, classy player, and he fully deserves all of the success he has had over the past couple of years. And yes, he even deserves that opportunity to break records held by the former greats.

Honestly? I believe the level of competition he's faced throughout his reign has been inferior to that which previous greats have faced. Nadal has become a phenomenal player, but other than him, who has really pushed Federer? Andy "My game hasn't progressed at all in seven years" Roddick? Leyton Hewitt?

Agassi alone makes Sampras's competition stiffer than Federer's ever has been, imo.

And Borg? He had McEnroe and Connors to go up against.

Roddick and Hewitt have consistently folded like a house of cards to Federer. I honestly think the second half of Federer's career is going to be considerably tougher than the first, because he's going to have Nadal and Djokovic(He beat Federer once and came very close to doing so in last year's U.S. Open final) to deal with, and he'll be getting older(in tennis terms - he's about to be 27, and early 30s is the typical expiration date for tennis players).

Another thing: Federer is as arrogant as any great champion of any sport should be, he's just good at hiding it and pretending to be humble and modest. Whereas a guy like Sampras was loud and made little to no effort to hide his ego, Federer wears his ego on a small, subtle grin on his face when he's winning, rather than shouting it out to the world the way Sampras did. It kills me that people actually believe that he's this humble, modest guy with no ego at all. How could you not have a huge ego when you're three majors away from an all-time record? You can't.

And a third thing: If Federer has a winless year, he will at long last appear to be somewhat human. Perhaps other players will start believing they can beat Federer instead of him being this untouchable god. Nadal denying him a record sixth straight Wimbledon is the first step in that, imo.

Federer has made tennis boring, imo. I am not denying that he's a great player. But I would rather have watched Nadal, Roddick, Hewitt, Blake, Nalbandian, etc fight it out and create some parity over these last five years than for Federer to just destroy everybody.

I mean even when Borg was dominating there was some parity. Borg won 12, but Connors won 8, Lendl won 8, McEnroe won 7. There were other legitimately great players giving him competition.

That is why I wanted so badly for Nadal to win this, and so badly for either him or Djokovic to win the U.S. Open this year, so that there can be some legitimately great players to give Federer competition. Sadly, I have all but given up on Roddick being one of those guys.

I hunger for an era like the second half of the 80s and first couple years of the 90s where there was no dominant force(Borg had retired and Sampras didn't start truly dominating until 93 or so). You had Lendl, Becker, Wilander, Edberg, etc all winning. Or like the late 90s and early 00s, when Sampras was fading, you had Agassi, Patrick Rafter, Safin, Hewitt, etc all vying.

I don't hate Federer. I just hate the monotony of tennis during his reign.
 
Definitely the best final in recent memory. Nadal was humble in his victory, and both players had some superhuman shots there.
 
What a great match that was!

:applaud:

I loved Nadal climbing all-over the broadcast booth and the clock deck and everything. Really fucking cool. I have to admit to rooting for Fed, though.

I've watched Fed ruin a number of Roddick's bids for Grand Slam titles so I wanted to see him ruin Nadal's chance here, too. Oh well. They both deserved it.

Don't you have this backwards? Since Federer apparently ruined Roddick's bids for Grand Slam titles, as you say, wouldn't it make sense to root for Nadal to ruin Federer's bid for a sixth straight Wimbledon?
 
Lara - glad to see you're favouring the tennis over BB like me!:wink:

Yup :D

That was such a mint game. It was great to see Rafa win. :up: Loved him going over to see his family and then Prince Felipe afterwards.
 
It's the same "hatred" that successful athletes and teams such as Michael Schumacher, the New York Yankees and to a lesser degree Tiger Woods received in their heyday (Woods, of course, is still in his prime). I suppose people become tired of seeing the same people winning over and over. I know that people were rooting against Schumacher when he was in the midst of 5 consecutive Formula One drivers' championships whilst with Ferrari.

That, and for me all the "greatest ever" hype around Federer. It's good to see Nadal and maybe Djokovic later on giving some competition and excitement in the tennis. Great final/match yesterday - best probably since great rivalries of the past.

Another thing to consider about Borg: he had 11 titles but quit at the age of 26. He would have easily gone past Sampras' record 15 had he continued IMO.


On to US Open now.
 
I definitely have never thought it was a weak era...Hewitt, Roddick, Nalbandian, Ancic, Murray, Gasquet...would honestly have supplied great competition for people in any era. Fed just raised the level of tennis to something completely new, which Nadal has been the only one able to reach that level with him. Federer is resposnible for making the sport better rather than worse. If you ever listen to McEnroe and Becker talk they honestly believe that the strength and depth to the mens game is probably the strongest it has ever been.

And unless namkcuR you are actually inside Federer's head, it would be impossible to know whether his humility is an act or not? Even if it is a conceit, the greatest player in the world for the past few years is still then tryin to keep himself grounded...hardly very arrogant. I'm just glad we have two guys at the top of the game who are genuinely nice guys.

Anyway greatest sporting final I have ever watched and as a Rafa fan. VAMOS!

Credit to both guys though for such an amazing display of tennis, I did think Rafa would lose after he lost those match points in the fourth, I thought fate had intervened for Roger again.
 
Great match, unfortunately I missed most of it. For anyone like me who did ESPN Classic is showing it tonight @ 7 ET. Which of course I'll miss because the Red Sox are on :(
 
OH MY GOD....

Wimbledon is the greatest tennis tournament of the year...I love everything about it, from the atmosphere in the studio, the atmosphere out on the courts, the area surrounding the courts, everything, it's a perfect tennis tournament. I love all the commentators, from Johnny to his son P-Mac and Cliff Gilbert and Dick Enberg...Mary Carillo, Mary Joe Fernandez and Darren and everyone else! It's perfection.

I watched every single point of the Federer vs. Nadal match and recorded it, and can't stop replaying it...it is the greatest match I have ever seen for sure, and one of the most dramatic sporting events in history. It was a better final than any recent superbowl, NBA Finals, or World Series...This is more incredible than Tiger winning the U.S. Open, bigger than the Celtics winning the NBA Finals.

I was going crazy the entire match, rooting for Nadal the entire time. Nadal is my favorite player, and then right behind him is Fed. It was hard to see Fed lose, but I'm glad Nadal ended up winning. At least Federer made it close. I didn't really want to see the match end in straight sets, that wouldn't have been good....

Anyway I'm looking for more coverage of this final...it seems like it ended and then it was barely talked about. When the broadcast ended, does anyone know if there was any other tennis broadcast wrapping the final up and discussing it a little? I'm just looking for more coverage and reflection from MacEnroe or anyone doing the broadcast from Wimbledon. It seems like once NBC's broadcast ended, that was it...nothing on ESPN, and I check NBC's schedule, there's nothing Wimbledon-related...and no coverage scheduled anywhere it seems. :hmm:
 
That was such an amazing match! Two tremendous players, two class guys. I was rooting for Nadal -- he's always felt like the underdog against Federer, even though he's, what, 12-6 against Roger in his career? And he's got 5 majors, when Federer had only one at the same age. Maybe Nadal's the one who's gonna set all the records!
 
It's the same "hatred" that successful athletes and teams such as Michael Schumacher, the New York Yankees and to a lesser degree Tiger Woods received in their heyday (Woods, of course, is still in his prime). I suppose people become tired of seeing the same people winning over and over. I know that people were rooting against Schumacher when he was in the midst of 5 consecutive Formula One drivers' championships whilst with Ferrari.

:yes:

I couldn't appreciate Formula 1 when every single fucking race was M. Schumacher/R. Barrichello. I hated him for it. It was sooo boring. So I agree with namckur, I was very glad to see this happen, and I don't like the faux modesty either, apologies to defenders of him, maybe it's not, but I think it is.
 
Sometime in Autumn I think. Should be interesting now that Djokovic won Australia and Nadal Wimbledon and Paris - and Nadal and Federer may very well fight soon in the Olympics.
 
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