While Nadal’s recent French Open title again solidified himself as the top clay court player of his era, doubts remained whether or not another Wimbledon was in the cards. It was. Facing 12th-seeded Thomas Berdych, Nadal defeated the Czech today 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 to claim his second Wimbledon championship.
From ESPN.com:
Nadal broke Berdych four times and never lost serve in 15 service games.
It’s the second time Nadal has won the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back. He is now 5-0 in his last Grand Slam finals.
With eight Grand Slam titles, Nadal joins a list of greats that includes Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Fred Perry and Ken Rosewall. He also has five French Open championships and one Australian Open title.
After ripping a crosscourt forehand passing shot on match point, Nadal collapsed on his back on the turf at the baseline and covered his face with his hands. After congratulating Berdych, Nadal leaped out of his chair and did a front somersault on the grass, rising to his feet with both fists clenched.
I’m skeptical to call Nadal the dominant player in men’s tennis, not because all of you will rip on me (I’m fine with that), but because we still need him to beat Roger Federer one more time in a Grand Slam. When Nadal and Federer squared off at Wimbledon in 2008, Nadal’s breakthrough victory alerted the world of his talent and justifiably shook Federer. Flash forward to January of 2009 and Nadal is defeating Federer in the Australian Open final, driving the point home further.
But directly after that, everything seemed to collapse. Nadal’s knees started to crumble and, even more surprising, Federer got better. After falling in the fourth round to Robin Soderling at the 2009 French Open, Nadal took heed of health concerns and withdrew from the upcoming Wimbledon. Federer, on the other hand, won both of those tournaments, surpassing Pete Sampras on the all-time Grand Slam list in the process.
Now Nadal is mowin’ em down once again, and his Wimbledon win today proves that he’s deserving of the world No. 1 recognition. What’s interesting to me is that Berdych beat Federer in the quarterfinals, but was thwarted in straight sets by Nadal in the final. Is there something we can glean from this about the stages of Federer and Nadal’s careers? You might not think so. I do. But like anyone else I think Nadal needs to win one more epic Grand Slam final between the two if he wants to deserve that extra praise.
Photo from fOTOGLIF
