1st and 2nd Sets
After both men were a set a piece, Federer dominant in the 1st, 6-4 and Nadal dominant in the 2nd, 6-3, it was all about Federer in the 3rd.
3rd Set
Federer was seeing the ball early and was phenomenal. The commentators said Federer was just pushing Nadal around.
Nadal held serve to get on the board in the 3rd set at 3-1 and it was not easy as Roger came back from 40-love saving 3 break points and they went back and forth after that until Nadal finally held serve.
Roger held serve easily after that to go up 4-1.
Nadal went back on serve and was not giving Federer the set easily but Roger had 2 spectacular shots back to back with his backhand to convert breakpoint at 5-1.
At that point Nadal sent 3 racquets to be restrung. The commentators joked they may not get back in time.
Then Roger was up to serve for the set. His forehand got him out of drouble at 30-40. He later failed to convert set point. It went back to deuce. He hit a ball long to give Nadal the advantage and served well to save it and go on to win the 3rd set, 6-1.
4th Set
Nadal started on serve in the 4th and held. The crowd was behind him even more.
Roger held serve easily to bring it to 1-1.
Nadal held easily to go up 2-1 than Roger had 2 bad misses on his serve creating an
opening for Nadal at love-30 and Nadal broke Federer early to go up 3-1.
Roger’s level of precision dipped on both his forehand and backhand since the bad miss in the previous game and it pushed Nadal to 40-15. He got a good forehand back to push it to 40-30 then he went on to push it to deuce. Nadal eventually closed out a tough service game with a shot that looked impossible to make to get to 4-1.
Roger served out a tough service game to put some scoreboard pressure on Nadal. Nadal now led 4-2 then pushed it to 5-2 with a love game followed by another to win the 4th set.
5th Set
After Federer took a Trainer’s time out,
Nadal broke his serve at the start of the 5th.
Nadal definitely started hiting the ball harder and at that point Federer would have to raise the level of his game to beat Nadal in the 5th.
The crowd got behind Federer and he thought he was going to get the break back but Nadal saved the break points and went up 2-0. Then Federer got on the board easily to make it 2-1. Federer came close on Nadal’s serve with break points but Nadal came through with the dagger to move closer to winning the Championship moving up to 3-1.
But you couldn’t count Roger out just yet!
He held serve then broke Nadal to get to 3-3 and served a love game to go up 4-3. The crowd got on their feet.
Federer got his feet back, dug deep and broke Nadal to go up 5-3. Federer converted his 2nd Championship point and won after Nadal was wrong on his Challenge. Roger won his 18th Grand Slam title 6-4, 3-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 and continues to be the greatest of all time.
Well played nadal. It was an epic match to go down in history. Congratulations FedExpress!
By: Gabrielle Burgess
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