Sport

Federer fights back from the brink

London: In an epic battle of endurance and daring, the four-time French Open champion Rafael Nadal was leading Roger Federer by two sets to one in the men’s singles final of the 122nd Wimbledon championship on Sunday.

Nadal threatened to run away with the match before the five-time champion from Switzerland played himself back into the contest, winning the third set tiebreak after the players had been forced into a break (Federer was up 5-4 in the third set at that point) of over an hour because of rain.

Nadal won the first two sets 6-4, 6-4 before Federer came back to take the third 7-6(5).

Ominous dark clouds hung over the most eagerly anticipated Grand Slam final in 27 years — since the time Bjorn Borg stepped out of the dressing room to defend his title against John McEnroe in 1981 — and everyone was anxiously looking up at the skies ahead of the scheduled 2 p.m. start.

“Right now, those two players [Federer and Nadal] are probably saying, ‘God, please let us go out and play’,” said Borg, talking to Sue Barker on BBC television. That was shortly after 1 p.m. and it was still raining at that point. “The whole world is waiting to see this match.”

It turned out to be short wait as the players walked on to the court shortly after 2 p.m. and the match got going at 2.23 p.m. Although the rain stopped, the conditions were far from perfect. With a strong breeze swirling around, it wasn’t easy for the players.

But then, gladiators seldom complain about the conditions. They just get on with the job, which is exactly what Federer and Nadal did in their sixth meeting in a Grand Slam final, challenging each other over every inch of the hallowed plot of turf.

You pitied the TV cameraman who had a job on their hands, for some of the shots were so acutely angled that the ones behind the camera had to perform matching miracles to get them in the frame.

The last time these two great rivals had crossed swords here, in the 2007 final, it turned out to be a high intensity battle which went all the way to the wire, one in which the champion overcame adversity early in the final set to reassert his status as a supreme grass court warrior.

There was electricity in the air and Nadal, unbeaten in 23 matches, started with all the confidence you’d expect to see in a man who had annihilated his great opponent the last time they met in a Slam final — at the French Open.

A bulldog of a player who uses his forehand like a bludgeon, Nadal is technically and tactically a vastly improved version of the one that lost successive Wimbledon finals to Federer.

The Spaniard was hitting almost every single serve to the Swiss maestro’s backhand in an effort to coax errors or meek mid-court returns which he could then pounce on like a hungry Rottweiler.

Performing at full throttle with his patented brand of dare-devil aggression, the four-time French champion quickly sowed doubts in Federer’s mind. Bruised, battered and lashed from the baseline, it was obvious that the champion had to advance to the net and take his chances there.

Federer did that now and again, not always successfully. For the sheer pace and power of Nadal’s groundstrokes and the 22-year-old Spaniard’s astonishing court coverage did not seem to give Federer the sort of confidence he need to camp at the net — especially after having won at least four of his five titles from his secure perch on the baseline.

Given all this, it was hardly surprising that it was the five-time champion who blinked first. Federer, who had lost serve only twice in six matches going into the final, was broken in his very second service game. He had three chances to break back, two of them when Nadal was serving for the set in the 10th game but the miserly Spaniard gave nothing away.

Down 1-4 in the second set, the Spaniard reeled off five games in a row to go up two sets to love in a set in which Federer missed the easiest of forehand passes at 30-30 in the seventh and then made a hash of a smash that he would have brought off with his eyes closed against any other opponent in the crucial eighth game.

Charcoal grey clouds gathered up overhead once again as Nadal survived a scare, falling on his dodgy right knee during a point early in the third set. Federer himself was staring down the barrel at 0-40 on serve in the seventh game but came through to hold on. Soon the rain arrived with the champion leading 5-4.

It was not until the play resumed an hour and 20 minutes later that Federer’s game approached its customary altitude. He took command of the third set tiebreak early, hit four aces and was quickly back into the match.

THE RESULTS

Women’s doubles: 11-Serena Williams (U.S.) & Venus Williams (U.S.) bt 16-Lisa Raymond (U.S.) & Samantha Stosur (Aus) 6-2, 6-2.

Junior girls: Laura Robson (Gbr) bt 3-Noppawan Lertcheewakarn (Tha) 6-3, 3-6, 6-1.

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