Today Roger Federer won his 14th career Grand Slam title, tying him with Pete Sampras for the most all time. Defeating Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-6 (1), 6-4, the same man who stunned Nadal in the fourth round, Federer became just the sixth man in history to win all 4 major tennis titles. The disappointment for me is that Federer didnt have to go through his true rival - Nadal - to win the title. Soderling is a fine player, but was clearly outmatched in the final. In Federer, you have a player with possibly the greatest single weapon in the history of the game - a forehand shot so electrifying many times opponents simply dont even go after the ball, rather than hit a weak shot or make an error trying to return it. Add to that one of the top ten serves on the tour and a blistering net game, and Soderling was very lucky to keep the second set close. When Federer is on his A game, there are only a handful of players in the world who can touch him, and only one who has proven he can consistently beat him - Nadal.
I wanted to see another epic final match between these two titans of the tennis world, but Nadal's knee didnt agree and now hes questionable for Wimbledon. Its amazing how quickly things can change at the top in pro tennis. After Nadal won the French, Wimbledon, the gold in Beijing and then the Australian Open, there was no question who the best tennis player in the world was. Now, we are left hoping Nadal's knee problems arent career threatening, and Federer has further cemented his place as the greatest player of all time. Heres hoping we havent seen the last battle between these two all time greats - lets see them meet in another 10 grand slam finals before they are done.
1 comment:
It was great to see, after all he's achieved, just how excited he got at finally winning the French.
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