Rafael Nadal, the French Open champion who has set so many records on the clay courts on which he was brought up, claimed that Wimbledon was now his favourite tournament after winning the longest and one of the finest men’s singles final in the championships’ history.
“It’s impossible to explain what I felt in the moment, no?” he said, and then made an expressive stab at doing so in his broken English. “I am just very, very happy to win this title, my favourite tournament for me. It’s a dream to play on this court. But win — I never imagined something like this. So I’m very happy, thank you very much, everyone.”
Later he agreed that it was probably the greatest match that he had ever played in and felt sorry for Federer for losing such a close contest. Nadal also broke new ground by climbing up to the royal box where sat the Crown Prince of Spain and his wife. “I met with his highness a few times before,” he said afterwards, almost as though that made this unorthodox encounter normal.
His greatest attention had been directed for his uncle and coach, Toni, who has been with him since he was four and was responsible for him, as a right-hander, developing a left-handed ability, with effective forehands on both wings.
“I just said thank you very much for his support, for their support all the time, coming with me, my uncle, my family. The rest of the family are there.”
With their help Nadal had remained buoyant, even though it appeared he might have lost his chance when he let slip a two-set lead. “I still felt confident in myself. I was prepared to wait,” he said. “I didn’t think about what had happened.”
Nevertheless, the effort to keep himself in the match, having missed two match points in the fourth set, had been enormous, Nadal agreed. “It’s disappointing for me that I am in the same time as the best player in history, Roger Federer.
“But I congratulate Roger because he always fights unbelievably. His attitude is always excellent when he wins or loses. So thank you very much, Roger. His attitude is very good for tennis. I feel sorry.”
Federer, who had wept after winning his first two Wimbledon finals, was now dry-eyed. “Yeah, I tried everything. It got a little late and everything,” he said, hinting that it had been too dark to see the ball clearly at the end. “But look, Rafa’s a deserving champion. He just played fantastically.”
The trying nature of the two rain delays was offered to him in the on-court interview as an excuse but Federer declined to take it as such. “It didn’t make it any easier but you got to expect the worst,” he said. “It’s the worst opponent on the best court.”
Later, however, Federer hinted that the finish in the darkness had not been satisfactory. “I kept on playing; I didn’t argue. But I think I would have said something had I broken back to eight all because it wasn’t possible to play any more.
“It would have been tough for us, the fans and everyone to come back tomorrow, but what are you going to do? It’s rough on me to lose the tournament because of the light. It was not a whole lot of fun but I can only congratulate Rafa.”
Federer also pointed out that the fading light had made the final more dramatic and, for the winner, more special. But when pushed to assess the depth of the disappointment, Federer became more sombre. “Yes,” he agreed, “It probably was my hardest loss, by far. I mean it’s not much harder than this right now, so...”
Nadal agreed about the conditions. “When I served for the match,” he said, “I see nothing.”
Richard Jago© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2008
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