The numbers may be impressive but they do not reveal the full story behind the brilliant and balletic Swiss who demonstrates such poise under pressureRoger Federer is one of those rare champions for whom numbers cannot gild genius. He loves to win, and strives for it more convincingly in the autumn of his career than scores of young contenders, as he proved for the eighth time on Centre Court on Sunday. Yet it is as if victory follows art, not the other way round.For the record, these are the bare statistics that will go into the history books to embellish his achievement, after he had spent just an hour and 41 minutes beating a wounded Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4. Related:...
The two greatest tennis players in history have rolled back the years at Wimbledon and a rerun of SW19’s greatest final could be on the cards on SundayNine years ago this week, Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal stepped on to Centre Court and played the final of all finals: a three-act epic across four hours and 48 minutes. It was, staggeringly, the last time the two greatest tennis players in history faced each other at Wimbledon.Yet, in the late autumn of their careers, the prospect of their great trilogy of finals between 2006 and 2008 becoming a quadrilogy grows more tangible with each screaming forehand. According to the bookmakers, the 35-year-old Federer is favourite for his eighth Wimbledon title while...
There is no cause for alarm after the world No1 pulled out of a pre-Wimbledon exhibition tournament but he, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic are all feeling physical pressureOn the face of it, Andy Murray’s withdrawal from an exhibition at the Hurlingham Club in London on Tuesday, citing a sore hip, is no cause for great alarm and of a piece with his season, indeed his career.He will, he says, play on Friday. However, taken cumulatively, the defending champion and world No1 will be at least mildly disturbed his body is aching in more places than he might have anticipated. Since his heroic charge over the closing stages of last season to rip away Novak Djokovic’s top ranking...
Rafael Nadal secured his 10th French Open title and looked back to his best – could he even hunt down Federer’s 18 grand slam titles?He made the relentless pursuit of La Decima look routine in the end, but it should not be forgotten how hard Rafael Nadal has fought to restore his dominance in Paris. It felt like the end of an era when Novak Djokovic toppled the king of clay in an embarrassingly one-sided quarter‑final in 2015. But spending some time away from the tour after being struck down by a wrist injury at the end of last year rejuvenated his mind and body. Backing up that crushing forehand with a devastatingly improved backhand, Nadal played some of his...
Tennis used to be dominated by players in their twenties but the resurgence of the Spaniard and Swiss shows this is the generation of the thirtysomethingThere was a moment in Rafael Nadal’s semi-final victory against Novak Djokovic at the Madrid Open on Saturday when it appeared as though the Spaniard had stepped into a time machine. After a prolonged and gorgeous thrash‑metal riff of a rally, Nadal suddenly turned the volume down from 11 to one. From the baseline he opened his racket face, chopped down hard, and then skipped and whooped as the ball fizzed over the net, embraced the red clay and died.That drop shot, under extreme pressure, brought up match point. Moments later he had secured his...