It was witnessing quite a piece of history, wasn't it? It's
worth remembering rain delays on Centre Court would be a thing of
the past from next year onwards with the retractable roof being
available.
Two rain delays, a code violation warning,
some breathtaking shots that quite simply belonged to another
planet, longest match in the history of Wimbledon finals (and not
to mention this will go down as arguably the greatest of them all
and certainly one to tell your children and grandchildren about),
coupled with record-breaking incentives (Federer bidding to be
the first player in the open era to win 6 successive Wimbledons
while Nadal was bidding to be the first Spaniard to win the Roland
Garros-Wimbledon double in the same year and the first man to do so
since Borg in 1980 and only the second Spaniard to win Wimbledon)
certainly made for a mouth-watering spectacle.
To be fair, I don't think there was anything separating the
pair, although Nadal would probably have done the job in 3 sets had
it not been for the first rain delay. That said, I thought justice
was certainly done in terms of the two rain delays restoring parity
with Federer gaining a massive advantage after the first one and
lost his momentum - from coming back to 2-2 after being two
sets down - after the second delay.
While I suppose I can only feel sorry for Federer (I'd have
felt sorry for whoever the loser would have been to be honest), it
certainly was a privilege to be watching probably the finest duel
between what is IMO the greatest player of all-time against
the finest player to have ever plied his trade on a clay court.
Perhaps, on occasions like this, Federer summed it up best when
he said "it's a pity there're no draws in tennis".
