It... is... ON!

Despite winning his fourth straight Wimbledon singles title today, at times displaying an almost unimaginable mastery on the court, Roger Federer’s brilliance is not the story this afternoon. Which is unfair. But the fact is, we’re used to Federer’s brilliance, and a little bored of coming up with further accolades to describe it. What we’re not used to is someone who plays against him with fearlessness and abandon, who forces him to bring out his very best or risk defeat, and that’s why Rafael Nadal, even in losing, is the story of the day.

After getting bageled in the first set, most Federer opponents would have laid down and died. But there is no give up in this Mallorcan terrier. Nadal got over his Centre Court jitters and lifted his intensity, tightening up only when he served for the set at 5-4. Had he managed to hold on and win that game, what a different match we might have seen.

But he didn’t. And so then, THEN, having lost a second set that he might have won, and now down TWO sets to the grass-court master of his generation, certainly now Nadal would throw in the towel.

Not a chance. He fought tooth and nail to get to a third-set tiebreak, and then won it by going for broke with a series of courageous passes and breakneck volleys.

Federer turned Nadal’s carriage into a pumpkin in the fourth set, but only by raising his game to a mind-boggling level of power and precision. And even then, Nadal showed epic pluck, breaking Fed back at 5-1 to have everyone wondering – how much fight is in this dog? Can he manage another rally?

No, he couldn’t – Fed closed it out with a service onslaught. But the match was immensely satisfying, a psychological seesaw of the kind that tennis does best. There is no doubt that we have a legitimate rivalry on our hands here, the first of this elevated caliber since the second wave of Sampras/Agassi.

What else is there to say? Let’s get to Flushing already.