Tennis · 2008 · London, England
The Greatest Final Ever Played
Two rain delays, two tie-breaks, and almost five hours end with Rafael Nadal finally beating Roger Federer at Wimbledon, in near darkness.
Nadal def. Federer, 9-7 in the 5th
Result
4h 48m
Match length
2
Championship points saved by Federer
Roger Federer had won the previous five Wimbledon finals in a row. Rafael Nadal had lost to him in the last two, including a four-set defeat the year before. Their 2008 final ran to four hours and forty-eight minutes, interrupted twice by rain, and finished so late that the final games were played in near-total darkness.
Nadal won the first two sets, Federer clawed back the third and fourth in tie-breaks, saving two championship points along the way in the fourth set alone, before Nadal finally closed it out 9-7 in the fifth as light faded across Centre Court.
Commentators and former players called it the greatest match either had played and one of the greatest in the sport's history, a verdict that has largely held up in the years since. It also marked a genuine changing of the guard, Nadal's first Wimbledon title after years of Federer's dominance on grass.
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