If you’re a Rafael Nadal fan then you will probably disagree with me when I say that this years Wimbledon was somewhat uninspiring. Maybe it was because the World Cup was on at the same time or maybe because I just didn’t get the chance to see a lot of it, but for some reason the tournament seemed to come and go without too much of a fuss. Murray reached the semi-finals which was a fine effort but there wasn’t the same drama and muscle flexing we seen in recent years and Federer missed out on the final for the first time since 2002 ending an epic sporting streak, but the story of the tournament wasn’t Nadal winning the crown again in any kind of a dramatic final, but the match between John Isner and Nicolas Mahut which went on for what seemed like forever and ever. That was the high point of Wimbledon 2010 for me and once that was done I just couldn’t maintain my focus.

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A bizarre day indeed. An earthquake struck Toronto this afternoon though I was one of the few that I have talked to that didn’t feel it. Perhaps I was too busy steadying myself from the shock waves coming out of Wimbledon were a game between two players I had never heard of was into the fifth set and tied at forty games a piece. It was about that score when people started running around talking about the quake just north of Ottawa that was powerful enough to shake the building I was in, but the Tennis action was distracting me more than enough and by the time all was said and done with light fading for the day John Isner of America and Nicolas Mahut of France were tied at 59 games a piece having played exactly 10 hours of the match and over six hours in the fifth set.

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The photo to the left is Roger Federer wiping his brow in relief rather than exhaustion after he came one shot away from being on the wrong end of one of the great Tennis upsets in the first round at Wimbledon 2010. Down 5-7, 4-6 to 60th ranked Alejandro Falla, Federer got himself together in the nick of time to win the third set, overcome a match point in the forth and win the final tsets 6-4, 7-6 (7-1), 6-0 to progress. Losing the six-time champion this early in the tournament would have been a disaster for Wimbledon coverage, but it would have been one hell of a story. Federer is the reigning champions at Wimbledon.

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I didn’t really write enough about the actual game in my last blog, actually I barely made any reference to the game itself at all and in particular that fifth set. In fact, all I said was, “It was a tight five set thriller against Andy Roddick who pushed Federer to the wire and got the best out of him,” and went on to mention of course that Federer won. But when you consider the circumstances, it really was the game that nobody deserved to lose in and the tightest game of Tennis of all time. It was, as a matter of fact, the longest men’s singles final ever in terms of games played. After losing 9-7 to Nadal twelve months ago, Federer went into ‘extra innings’ against this year with the final set lasting 95 minutes and 30 games with Federer finally coming out on top 16-14. Considering the previous Grand Slam record was 11-9 in the fifth seat at the 1927 French Open, you see how much these two guys matched one another and pushed one another.

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So Roger Federer wins Wimbledon … again, and this time moves ahead of Pete Sampras with the most grand slam wins of all time with 15. It was a tight five set thriller against Andy Roddick who pushed Federer to the wire and got the best out of him, but for Roddick it was heart break yet again as he lost his third Wimbledon final. Federer adds this victory to his French Open title that he won last month and will go into the US Open in August as the most in form player in the world. Read More»

The British English Press have went from dreaming headlines along the lines of ‘Britain’s first Wimbledon Champion’, to actually writing tomorrows headlines along the lines of ‘Scotland’s lovable loser’.

Indeed, the dream is over for another year as Murray went down to Andy Roddick in four sets in their Wimbledon semi-final. It does however mark further progress from Murray who has gone one round closer to the final than the year before. Will he get a better chance to get back to the final again when Nadal comes back in twelve months? We’re just going to have to wait and see.

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We really only watch the first week of Wimbledon in the hope that we might see some crazy upset with a big name taking a fall about seven days before they should have but in general it is the second week when we all tune in to see the real exciting stuff. With today’s victory, Britain’s great hope, Andy Murray moved into the last sixteen — the second week.

All the top names generally are still in the competition and this is the stage when we start to see some of them getting drawn against one another. By this time next week we will know who will be playing in the mens final … A must watch.