2008 Wimbledon Championships – Men's singles final participant Roger Federer
The 2008 Wimbledon Championships Men's Singles final was the championship tennis match of the men's singles tournament at the 2008 Wimbledon Championships. A part of the storied Federer–Nadal rivalry, it pitted then-top ranked Roger Federer against then second-ranked Rafael Nadal. After 4 hours and 48 minutes of play, Nadal defeated Federer 6–4, 6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–7(8–10), 9–7. The match is regarded by many as one of the greatest tennis matches ever played.Statistics
Significance
At 4 hours and 48 minutes, the match at the time was the longest singles final at Wimbledon in terms of time played. It was overtaken by the 2019 men's singles final, another match involving Federer, in which he lost to Novak Djokovic.
Federer had won five consecutive titles at Wimbledon (2003-2007), a record shared with Björn Borg. At Wimbledon 2008, Federer attempted to surpass Borg's record, and become the first male player in the Open Era to win six consecutive Wimbledon titles. Nadal defeated Federer at his most successful major and ended his 41-match winning streak at Wimbledon. By winning the match, Nadal achieved the rare French Open–Wimbledon double, joining (at the time) Rod Laver and Björn Borg as the only men to do so in the Open Era. Federer achieved the same feat the following year, with Nadal winning the double once again in 2010.
Two months later, in August, Nadal finally overtook Federer in the ATP rankings, ending Federer's reign as world no. 1 at a record 237 consecutive weeks. Many tennis analysts wondered whether 2008 was the beginning of Federer's decline in favour of the younger Nadal. Federer, however, regained the top ranking on three occasions, after winning Wimbledon in 2009 and 2012 and the Rotterdam Open in 2018. Federer also impressively made the finals of the next six consecutive Grand Slam tournaments (2008 US Open [won], 2009 Australian Open [finalist], 2009 French Open [won], 2009 Wimbledon [won], 2009 US Open [finalist], and 2010 Australian Open [won]), winning four of these six Grand Slam finals. Nadal only made one Grand Slam final, beating Federer in the 2009 Australian Open final, during this time.