Why Roger Federer's Loss at Wimbleon Hurts The Most

Fact: Federer is better than Nadal.

Well that's what all of us Federer fans were hoping to say after the Wimbledon 2008 final anyway.

But the evidence keeps pointing otherwise, and to be honest, it's heart-breaking.

It all started with the French Open

Federer has had chance after chance to prove that he could heighten the peak of his game on clay and overcome Nadal.

But so far he's failed. Some might even say he's now going backwards, on the way down from the peak of his own game, based on the performance he gave in Nadal's French Open win.

And who's to say he'll overturn that downturn?

Nadal on the other hand has been steadily improving over the last few years; getting closer, result by result, to Federer's peak on grass. And it's sad to say, but it looks like this year he's climbed on top of it.

Is Federer still the greatest?

Man, I felt so down after that final.

I think partly the reason why Federer fans like myself are so sad is because now, more than ever, we have doubts. Doubts based on his performances against Nadal for the last few years, as to whether Federer IS the greatest tennis player ever.

What I wanted was for Federer to be at his best. I wanted Nadal to be at his best. I wanted Federer at his best to beat Nadal at his best. 

So that when people looked back at Federer's career, they would say that he reached the highest peak possible in tennis. He had the chance to do just that in this match.

But he didn't. And it hurts so bad to say that because I believe, and I think a lot of people believe, that Federer deserves be the best ever. 

It doesn't make sense.

Mentally, the man is ice cool; he never seems fazed by any sort of pressure, let alone crack under it like mere mortals. He epitomizes all of the great qualities that I've seen in other great players in their respective sport; Zidane is a similiar enigma who comes to mind.

His technique is more than textbook, it's textbook defining. Indescribable beauty and grace yet at the same time powerful, accurate, and devastating. 

He makes it all look so easy, and it's that type of player which is almost universally seen at the top of their respective sports.

That's why it's so hard to understand—there is no precedent for what Nadal has done in usurping Federer. Never before have I seen, in the sports I follow, the muscular brute force player prevail over the elegant.

Aspirations

The thing is, I WANT to aspire to play like Federer. I DON'T want to aspire to play like Nadal.

Even if Nadal beats Federer in all their future matches, in the exact same manner that he won Wimbledon this year, I still would rather play like Federer.

It's hard to pinpoint why. In all other sports, I generally aspire to be like the best players in the sport, not necessarily the most graceful. And yet even though there's strong proof that Nadal is the best tennis player in the world (at least right now), I wouldn't dream of playing like him.

I see Nadal's technique as wrong somehow; imperfect, even though it has beaten Federer's "perfect" technique on the overwhelming majority of matches now.

Maybe it's an underlying vague sense of natural ease, elegance, and beauty that I just don't see in Nadal. Maybe that's why I can't bring myself to aspire to play tennis like him. Who knows?

Six in a row

In this match, aside from beating Nadal at his best, Roger Federer had the chance to win six Wimbledons in a row, a feat never achieved before*.

If he had won six in a row, there would've almost definitely been a ubiquitous feeling amongst tennis fans and experts alike that Federer is the greatest that has ever lived.

But, of course, he didn't manage the feat. So he's stopped on 5, level with Bjorn Borg (the best looking 52 year old you will ever see!).

Yet there's a general feeling that one somehow just knows that Federer is a better player than Borg. We just can't prove it.

And it hurts so bad because Roger, possibly the greatest player that has ever lived, had the chance to prove it.

The sad thing is he will, forever, only remain merely "POSSIBLY the greatest player that has ever lived".

Why this one will hurt for a long, long time

Many fans claim their favourite player to be the greatest, but few players ever get the chance to definitively prove it.

Federer had that chance: to win Wimbledon six times in a row; that oh so rare chance, hardly ever seen in sport as a whole, let alone tennis, the once in a lifetime opportunity, to truly define oneself as "the greatest".

And he missed it.

Nadal may never play so well again. He may well have reached his peak. Future matches may only be against a lesser Nadal. As a result, even if Federer does improve his game to the highest peak ever in the history of tennis, he won't be able to prove it.

More than that though, barring a miracle, that shot at six in a row will never come along again.

Five days removed from the Wimbledon 2008 Final, I've finally come to admit that in all probability, my hero, Roger Federer, will never prove he is "The Greatest".

That's what hurts the most.

I don't think I'll ever get over it.





*Not REALLY anyway. I think one guy did it, but that was when tennis was relatively unpopular and he only had to play 1 match the win the tournament!