After watching the Wimbledon men’s singles final today, all I have to say is WOW.  I’m left nearly speechless.  It was, hands down, one of the greatest matches I’ve ever seen, and possibly one of the greatest matches in tennis history.  The longest championship match in Wimbledon history was perahps the tournament’s greatest ever.  That takes a lot for me to say because I’m a huge Pete Sampras fan, but Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal put on a show today, hitting seemingly impossible angles with unthinkable pace.  And to compound the impeccable tennis on display on Centre Court, the players were hampered with two rain delays, which caused the total match time to exceed seven hours.  It was, in a word, unbelievable.

I hope NBC’s coverage of this event got big ratings, because tennis is an amazing sport that needs more exposure in the United States.  The top pros make the sport look so easy; however, it’s anything but.  First of all, it’s physically demanding.  A tennis player has to be able to change directions on a dime, read and react in (literally) a split-second, and deal with the elements.  Then there’s the technique involved with hitting a tennis ball.  Much like golf, where even the slightest hitch in a swing can cause the ball to drift tens of yards off target, the technique in tennis is vital to a player’s success.  Footwork, balance and weight shifting, hip and shoulder rotation, arm angle, wrist snaps, non-dominant hand movement, and follow-through, plus ball speed judgment and spin assessment all have to be considered…and that’s just to hit a simple forehand, never mind an overhead smash or a serve!  Also like golf, tennis is mentally challenging as well.  During a match, it’s just you and your opponent.  No coaches to advise you, so assistants offering aid.  It’s just player(s) vs. player(s).

Something funny happened to me watching the post-match trophy presentation.  I actually felt bad for Roger Federer.  It was weird because, being a huge Pete Sampras fan, I want his records to stand.  But Federer impressed me today with his grace in defeat.  He took it hard, as evidenced by his post-match interview with John McEnroe, but displayed at tremendous amount of poise and heart.  Coming back from two sets down only to lose a heart-breaking fifth set 9-7 in a place where he’s won five years in a row could not have been easy, and he accepted that Nadal narrowly beat him with class and style.  I think today may have even turned me into (dare I say it) a Federer fan.  Tennis players get a lot of criticism for being supposedly stoic and machine-like (Bill Simmons, for example) and not sticking around for a long time.  Not today, though.  Federer is going to win more Grand Slam titles before he’s done, eclipsing Sampras’ record of 14, and will go down as the greatest player ever.  And now, officially, Federer has a rival in Nadal, who’ll challenge Federer and push him to succeed even more than he already has, much like Agassi did to Sampras.  Contrary to what the Sports Guy says, players like Sampras and Federer ARE good for tennis.  They give us a reason to watch.  Like we do with Tiger, we tune to see if they’ll rewrite the history books.  The way I see it, tennis players’ supposed lack of longevity (which is due in no small part to the physical demands of the sport) should be all the more reason we tune it to witness amazing athletes like Sampras, Agassi, Federer, and Nadal.  Federer didn’t make history today; it was Nadal’s turn.  But Roger’s close, and that gives tennis fans–hopefully sports fans, in general–reason to watch the upcoming hardcourt season and the US Open later this summer.

Tennis is a fast-paced, elegant, captivating display of athleticism and mental fortitude, and there is hardly a better example of that display than today’s final. The match undoubtedly is an “instant classic,” so I hope ESPN Classic replays it soon and hope people tune in.  And if you don’t have that channel, check out the highlights and/or read up on the marathon between the world’s top two players.  I promise that it’ll be worth it.