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The 2008 Wimbledon Men's Singles final was the championship tennis match of the Men's Singles tournament at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships. A part of the storied Federer–Nadal rivalry, it pitted then-top ranked Roger Federer against then second ranked Rafael Nadal. After 4 hours and 48 minutes, Nadal defeated Federer 6–4, 6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–7(8–10), 9–7. It is widely regarded as the greatest match in the history of tennis.
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Background
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal have a storied rivalry that many consider to be the greatest in tennis history. As they entered the 2008 Wimbledon Championships, the two men had combined to win 14 of the previous 16 Grand Slam titles.
The 2008 Wimbledon Men's Singles final was the third consecutive year in which Federer and Nadal had met in the finals of Wimbledon. Federer had won not only both previous meetings, but had also been the Wimbledon champion five years in a row and was now trying to become champion for a sixth consecutive year.
Nadal, on the other hand, had just won the French Open for the fourth time in a row and was trying to achieve the rare French Open-Wimbledon double. This feat was known to be extremely difficult because it required the player to make the switch from a slow clay surface to a fast grass surface and be the best on both surfaces within the space of a month. In the Open Era of tennis, only two men had previously achieved this feat: Rod Laver and Björn Borg. Since this showdown match, Roger Federer has completed the Roland-Garros/Wimbledon double in 2009 and Rafael Nadal achieved the feat for a second time in 2010.
Federer's success in 2008 was severely hampered by a lingering bout of mononucleosis which he suffered from during the first half of the year.
Match details
Although the players were due on court at 14:00 BST, rain delayed the start of the match by about 35 minutes. The umpire was Pascal Maria.
Once the match had commenced, Nadal won the first two sets 6–4, 6–4. Nadal received time violation warning from the chair umpire in the third set, but rain stopped play once again as Federer led the third set 5–4. After an 80-minute break for the weather, Federer battled back to win the next two sets, 7–6, 7–6, saving two championship points in the fourth set tiebreak. A second rain delay at 19:53 BST kept the players in the locker room for another 30 minutes. When they returned onto court, darkness had already started setting in, and threatened to delay the match until the next day. During the deciding set, Federer was two points away (and at one point, a break point up) from claiming his sixth consecutive Wimbledon crown, but Nadal ultimately held serve, and continued play. Afterwards Federer claimed it was so dark "I almost couldn’t see who I was playing" and "It’s rough on me now, obviously, to lose the biggest tournament in the world over maybe a bit of light."
During the match, Federer had only converted one of thirteen break points on Nadal's serve.
Nadal could not defend his title in 2009 due to a knee injury. Roger Federer won that year's title, defeating old rival Andy Roddick (whom he had defeated in the 2004 and 2005 finals) in a similarly classic final with a score of 16–14 in the final set, to break Pete Sampras' record for most Grand Slam titles won by a man in the Open Era. With that victory, Federer regained the world no. 1 ranking from Nadal.
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Significance
At 4 hours and 48 minutes, the match was the longest singles final at a Wimbledon in terms of time played, and was the longest in any Grand Slam Final until the 2012 Australian Open final.
By winning the match, Nadal achieved the rare French Open–Wimbledon double, joining Rod Laver and Björn Borg as the only men to do so in the Open Era. Federer achieved the same feat the following year. Nadal won the double again in 2010.
Two months later, in August, Nadal finally overtook Federer in the ATP Rankings, on which Federer had reigned as world no. 1 for a record 237 consecutive weeks. Many tennis analysts wondered whether this was the beginning of Federer's decline in favor of the younger Nadal, or perhaps his recovery from a six-month battle with Mononucleosis was not complete. Federer regained the top ranking on two occasions, after winning the Wimbledon title in 2009 and 2012.
Due to the rain delays, the match ended in near darkness at 21:15 BST. It was to be the last Wimbledon final to be significantly affected by rain, as a retractable roof was being installed at Centre Court and would be in place by the 2009 Wimbledon Championships.