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This Day In Sports…July 6, 2008:
He had won an Open Era record 65 consecutive matches on grass courts, and a 66th would make Wimbledon history. But Roger Federer’s five-year run of Wimbledon men’s singles championships, the last two over Rafael Nadal, came to an end in a remarkable five-set marathon against Nadal on Centre Court. Nadal took the first two sets, but—working around an 80-minute rain delay—Federer fought back to take the next two in tiebreakers in his effort to win a sixth straight Wimbledon and break the modern era record he shared with Bjorn Borg (1976-80).
It took everything Federer had to get it to a fifth set. Nadal, apparently unfazed by the weather, had him down 5-2 in the fourth, but Federer evened the set and saved two championship points in the tiebreaker, one on a double-fault by Nadal. Each player nailed a jaw-dropping passing shot on back-to-back points during the breaker, a sequence that basically cemented the match as the greatest in tennis history. Federer survived the tiebreak 10-8 as the light started to fade.
The show went on in almost total twilight after another rain delay of 30 minutes, with each player holding serve until the set reached 7-7. It was then that Nadal broke Federer and served out to win 9-7 to secure his first Wimbledon title. Nadal also became only the third player to achieve the “Channel Slam,” winning the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year (joining Rod Laver and Borg). The elapsed time of the 2008 final was four hours and 48 minutes, and it ended at 9:16 p.m. Wimbledon time. It was the final Wimbledon before the addition of the retractable roof over Centre Court.
It was Nadal’s fifth Grand Slam championship—he’d win 17 more before retiring in 2024. Federer had eight more major titles to go before hanging it up in 2022 with 20. The career leader is Novak Djokovic with 24 Grand Slam crowns, and he’s still alive for a 25th at Wimbledon going into his quarterfinal match against third-seeded Felix Auger-Aliassime on Tuesday. On Sunday, Djokovic won his 106th career Wimbledon match, breaking the record held by Federer.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)
