10 Things I Learned From Wimbledon 2013
6. Federer And Nadal Done?
For the rest of my mostly pointless life I will never forget the amazing 2008 Wimbledon final between Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal. The longest final in Wimbledon history was a truly epic encounter between two of the best players to have ever played tennis. It was the perfect final, any fan could have dreamed of watching two great players in their prime battling away on centre court for the Grand Slam title.
Fast forward to this year and while that epic match is still long in the memory the 2013 versions of Nadal and Federer are very different players now and looking more mortal than they ever have before. Nadal first who won the French Open a few weeks ago but Nadal pretty much always wins the French Open having now won 8 times on the clay of course proving his nickname The King of Clay is accurate.
Coming off a serious knee injury Nadal looked so unlike himself during his 1st round defeat to the unknown Steve Darcis. Never before had a Wimbledon crowd seen Nadal so out muscled and out powered in a match then beaten so easily in three sets. Nadal refused to blame the court or his knee for his defeat saying he just wasnt on form and it certainly looked that way. I doubt it was his court or his knee
Federer on the other hand went out to the even more unknown Sergiy Stakhovsky a shocking 3rd round defeat Federers earliest elimination from Wimbledon since 2002. The defeat has dropped Federer down to 5th in the world ranking the lowest he has been in a decade showing maybe the stylish controlled Swiss watch of a player is now on the downward slide of his career.
It happens to the best of players where father time eventually catches up to you and the unbeatable Swiss is now starting to look human. Murray defeated him in the Olympics on his favourite court, Djokovic has bested him in many finals and now 116th seed Stakhovsky has beaten him. Federer loves Wimbledon so it would have hurt him even more but in Federers defence he was rarely broken by the Ukraine player with 3 of the 4 sets going to tiebreak.
I personally dont think either Nadal or Federer are done as players as both still have one or two brilliant performances in them, I can see both of winning another Grand Slam or two but age and the wear and tear their bodies must have taken from being at the top for so long must eventually start to tell on anyone. We will still have a couple of years of watching and enjoying the two greatest players the tennis world has ever seen.