Roger Federer beats old foe Rafael Nadal in four sets to reach his 12th Wimbledon final and avenge defeat in iconic 2008 clash on Centre Court
- Roger Federer booked his place in the Wimbledon final by beating Rafael Nadal
- Neither man could break serve in the first set but Federer took it on a tie break
- Nadal showed his class to quickly hit back though and take the second set 6-1
- Federer broke Nadal early in the third and won it 6-3 to move back into the lead
- It did not take long for him to break Nadal in the fourth as he clinched it 6-4
- The Swiss legend will now play Novak Djokovic in the final on Sunday afternoon
Coco Gauff, the shining new star of Wimbledon, was not even born when Roger Federer won his first title here in 2003.
Now, an astonishing 16 years on from that triumph, he will go for a ninth championship after beating Rafael Nadal 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Federer is nearly 38, but still he is scaling the heights. On Sunday he renews hostilities with Novak Djokovic after an astonishing display which saw him hold his nerve in a climax that had shades of their classic final of 2008.
Roger Federer booked his place in the Wimbledon final with a four-set win over Rafael Nadal
The Swiss great lines up another devastating forehand on the way to a 7-6, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 win
Nadal roars in delight after winning the second set to bring the semi-final back on level terms
Momentum shifted against Nadal though and two early breaks saw him lose sets three and four
Five match points were needed and a break point was saved at the death, when he came out to serve for the match at 5-4 in the fourth. A standing ovation accompanied their joint departure from the court.
Not only had he dominated coming forward, but he used his forehand to outpunch Nadal from the back of the court, winning 45 out of 76 points that lasted five strokes or more.
Federer pronounced it one of his most satisfying moments. ‘This ranks extremely high,’ he said. ‘It’s always special to play Rafa and it lived up to the hype, everything before and that crazy last game. I’m relieved it’s over but it will go down as one of my favourite matches.
‘There are no draws in our sport, so it can be brutal sometimes. Good things happen when you try to do the right thing.’
Incredibly, Federer and Serena Williams are back in the finals, as in 2003. ‘It’s a bit strange and very special for both of us,’ he said. ‘It’s not something I expected. The stars are aligned now.’
Nadal outlined the enduring difficulty of playing Federer, saying: ‘He is always able to make the most difficult things look easy. He puts pressure on you all the time because he has the ability to take the ball earlier than anyone else. He doesn’t give you time to open up the court. It’s great to be part of this rivalry among three players. It will be difficult to see it again, but we are not done.’
British umpire James Keothavong flips a coin as Federer and Nadal watch on before the match
Federer unleashes a powerful forehand during the early stages of the highly-anticipated clash
He was referring to the bigger war at play in these battles over Wimbledon’s closing stages, that of who can bag the all-time Grand Slam winners tally. Nadal will be left on 18, while Federer will go to 21 or Djokovic will head up to 16.
While people had been waiting 11 years for this rematch on Centre Court after the great 2008 final, it felt somewhat like Wimbledon 2019 had been waiting 11 days for the men’s event to begin.
Such has been the hegemony of the big three that this fixture had been marked down since the draw was made two weeks previously, and now here it was on a sunlit but breezy main arena. Sometimes it seems as though the men’s game has been preserved in aspic since the mid- to late 2000s. Many fans would not complain too much about that, and while Federer and Nadal may have slightly thinner hair, they have not changed a vast amount.
The clearest superficial difference from that famous night in 2008, when Nadal won at 9.15pm, is that the Spaniard was then wearing a sleeveless shirt and shorts so long they were almost like pantaloons. While his shorts may have shrunk, his serve has grown a lot since, and the first seven games were in huge contrast to the first semi-final, without a rally in sight as each man dominated off his own delivery.
Nadal struggled with the Federer serve in the opening stages of the pulsating semi-final
Both men's service games were impeccable in the first set as the opener went into a tie break
Nadal throws his towel back to the ball boy during the second set on Centre Court
The tiebreak went initially in Nadal’s favour but at 2-3 the Swiss electrified his returns and, when he thumped a forehand down the court to take it 7-3, the crowd, which had been far more balanced than for the Djokovic match, rose to acclaim him. Dropping serve at 1-2 in the second set changed the momentum completely and, once he had been broken to love in the next game, Federer did not so much lose the second set as resign from it.
It seemed to do the trick as he began the third much like the first. Using his forehand to dictate, he forced a break point and took it after a stunning duel at the net, which ended with him planting a high backhand volley right on to the sideline for a winner.
Nadal was standing so far back, he almost had his back to the racing-green canvas and he forced three break points in a lung- busting fourth game, which Federer saved, amid gasps from the crowd, by refusing to yield from the baseline. One exchange involved 25 blows.
The Spaniard hit back quickly and took the second set 6-1 to level things up on Friday
But Nadal's serve proved vulnerable and Federer broke early in the third before taking it 6-3
Federer shows his touch around the net with a drop volley that left Nadal chasing the ball
He once again overcame Nadal's serve early in the fourth set and closed out the contest 6-4
Federer is through to his 12th Wimbledon final and will now play Novak Djokovic on Sunday
A feature of the set was that Federer was winning the vast majority of rallies lasting five strokes or more, horribly unfamiliar for the king of the baseline. Federer could have given himself a double-break cushion in the sixth game but Nadal fended off two more break opportunities.
After breaking for 2-1, the last game, with Nadal refusing to yield and Federer wobbling, was almost like a condensed version of the 2008 drama, except the outcome was different this time.
Retired champions often admit that the nerve frays with age and greater self-awareness. Not so for Federer, who showed again that he is not like other men.
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