Wimbledon is the third men’s major in the calendar year and is played on grass. Some of the most infamous and classic matches have been played here. From Borg vs McEnroe to Sampras vs Agassi to Federer vs Nadal every tennis players dream is to play on centre court and hold up the coveted gold trophy.
The 2008 Wimbledon is considered the greatest match ever. Here is why: not only did Nadal and Federer meet in the 2006 and 2007 Wimbledon finals but they had also meet at the French Open in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008, Nadal winning all the ones on clay and Federer winning both meetings on grass. Federer was going for a record sixth straight Wimbledon titles and Nadal was trying to be the first since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to win a French Open and Wimbledon in the same year. For these reasons the hype was there, but hype can only do so much. The match started off with Nadal winning the first two sets which put Federer with a huge mountain to climb. Federer won the third set tiebreaker and in the fourth they went to another tiebreaker. Considered one of the best tiebreakers of all time Nadal hitting a passing shot for the ages to give him his first championship point. Nadal served and volleyed to put pressure on Federer and man did he point in clutch win a backhand passing shot in the back left corner. The crowd went nuts. Federer ended up winning the fourth and after multiple rain delays in the first three sets, when the fifth set came around, it was the darkest and longest final ever played at the time. Nadal broke Federer at 7-7 and held serve to win his first Wimbledon title 9-7 in the fifth set that made for the greatest match ever played at Wimbledon.
Roger Federer is an 8x Wimbledon champion and is considered not only the greatest grass court player of all time but the greatest to every play the sport. With a pinpoint accurate dagger serve to his bully forehand to a Lendl like backhand slice to drive grass court opponent crazy. Federer’s two greatest rivals at Wimbledon have been Rafael Nadal because of his whipping top spin forehand to Federer’s backhand and Novak Djokovic’s consistency with a solid serve game and a return game to drop jaws.
Pete Sampras held the record for most Wimbledon titles with 7 before Roger Federer Passed him in 2017 by winning his 8th. Pete Sampras is considered the greatest server of all time and also followed up his weapon a with a deadly serve and volley game on the grass courts which proved to be the money maker that brought home so many gold trophies.
Bjorn Borg (Left) won 5 straight Wimbledon championships from 1976 – 1980. The 1980 Wimbledon Final is considered to be one of the greatest matches of all time. With a 4th tiebreaker for the ages John McEnroe (Right) tried to break through with his first Wimbledon victory but fell short in the 5th set to give Borg his then record 5th straight championship. The record was tied at five straight by Roger Federer is 2007 and Borg’s record for five total was broke by Pete Sampras in 1999 when he beat Andre Agassi in straight sets.
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