Wimbledon 2008

[Aardvark747]

What a game this is. Keep going Rafa!

[Aardvark747]

Lara - glad to see you're favouring the tennis over BB like me!

[Aardvark747]

YES! Superb effort from Nadal!

[vaz02]

Blah
Great game of tennis though

[Aardvark747]

Yep. Best in years.

[DaveC]

I'm glad I managed to turn it on in time for the final tiebreak game. That's as good as it gets.

[Lila64]

I started watching at the 4th set. What a game!!!
Congrats Nadal!

[U2girl]

What a game, well played both of them. And now this may be a real rivarly coming. Go Nadal !

[vaz02]

Originally Posted by U2girl What a game to both of them. And now this may a real rivarly coming.

This rivalry with last for years to come to

[namkcuR]

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!

[GibsonGirl]

Originally Posted by namkcuR 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.

[BoMac]

Originally Posted by GibsonGirl ...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.

[GirlsAloudFan]

What a great match that was!



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.

[namkcuR]

Originally Posted by GibsonGirl ...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.

[ntalwar]

Definitely the best final in recent memory. Nadal was humble in his victory, and both players had some superhuman shots there.