Breakfast, Lunch and a Mid-Day Snack at Wimbledon

I woke up early to watch tennis yesterday. I pretty much didn't move most of the day. Thankfully, it was arguably the greatest match in the history of tennis.

In case you missed it, Rafael Nadal beat NO favorite Roger Federer in a five set marathon finally breaking Federer at 7-7 in the fifth set. Nadal became the first player to win both the French Open and Wimbledon in back to back years since Borg in 1980 and denied Federer the chance at becoming the first ever six-in-a-row champion at the All England Club.

The match was like nothing I'd really ever seen. When Nadal came out and broke in the first, I thought it was over. I thought that the Federer reign was done. Then the rain came down two sets and Federer seemed to kick it in winning the third and fourth before neither player dropped a set on serve until overtime in the fifth.

The interesting thing is, Federer should have won in four. Federer was up 4-2 in the second before losing 4 straight games. It was almost embarrassing. Federer served well all match, except for one game. And that's the one that will undoubtedly haunt him. He let Wimbledon go in the second, not in the fifth.

But though we can analyze Federer's losing the tournament, it's hard to take away the match from Nadal. He was unreal. Absolutely unreal. He was broken, what, once? In that second set and broke right back. He hit's unreal passing shots off balanced, with a two-handed backhand as if he knows exactly where Federer is going to be when Roger comes to net.

I think Nadal is just a smarter tennis player than Federer. He makes better decisions, adjusts, and doesn't try to beat himself. Federer will play his game and do it over and over. Granted, it's worked well, but he's now lost on his turf. Will Federer rock some ridiculous outfits next year?

The thing about Nadal's preparation that astounds me the most is his use of his serve. His ace total is obviously not what Federer's is. But he structures the points to his favor with his serve. So though he's not getting the glam numbers with the aces, he's getting the awkward returns he wants from his carefully positioned serves. The higher percentage play and if you didn't notice, the play that wins you titles.

Yesterday was an amazing day for tennis. Even Johnny Mac was emotional. But you probably witnessed the greatest match of all time if you watched yesterday. And as much of a Federer fan that I am, it really didn't bother me to see him lose that way. Seeing such a great sporting event like that is enough for me. But a changing of the guard is in the air as Nadal is moving closer to being the #1 player in the world. But can Nadal win on the hard court? We will see very soon.