20W20 #7: 2007 Final, Federer vs Nadal

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Cabeza del Demonio

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At 7th on my 20W20 list comes the first true Grand Slam epic of the legendary Federer-Nadal rivalry. It was a match of exquisite quality, with Federer at the height of his dominance facing a stern challenge from the Matador of Mallorca. Nadal had come a long way from a year ago when Federer had dispatched him in imperious fashion, but it wouldn't be enough to dethrone the king of tennis - yet. Federer fended off break points from his young challenger at the beginning of the final set to steal the momentum and race to the finish line, finishing with an overhead into the open court to claim his 5th Wimbledon crown, 7-6(7) 4-6 7-6(3) 2-6 6-2.

A devastated Nadal was seen crying in the locker room for half an hour, believing his last chance to win Wimbledon had slipped from his grasp. Little could he have known that day what the future held for him on the hallowed lawns of SW19.
__________________________________________________

I had this match virtually tied with Nadal-Muller, but I chose this one for #7 mainly because there were no 5th set highlights for me to relive the Nadal-Muller (NaduIIer? Sounds appropriate for a NaduII match) classic.
Enjoy!
 
As a Federer and Nadal fan, it has been a privilege to watch these two play. The 2008 Wimbledon final was the greatest match of all time. It was unbelievable how hard Nadal had to fight to finally achieve his dream of winning Wimbledon, especially after how hard he pushed Federer in the 2007 Wimbledon final, which was also one of the greatest matches of all time.

@REKX Am I doing this right?
 
Jonesy said:
This is the number 1 for a lot of Fed fans.
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No by quality it Should be top 3 top 5 at the very very worst. It shades 2008 F and 2018 SF even for me. And I have no real preferences here.


OP, you did a oopsie. Both Del Potro vs Djokovic and this ranks way Higher.
 
ForehandCross said:
No by quality it Should be top 3 top 5 at the very very worst. It shades 2008 F and 2018 SF even for me. And I have no real preferences here.


OP, you did a oopsie. Both Del Potro vs Djokovic and this ranks way Higher.
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Very doubtful. This is not even the best quality match for both players.

Fed style was perfectly suited for grass.

It was not even about the matchup as Nadal forehand could't hurt Fed backhand like on clay.

Simply put, Fed had a big mental block when it came to play against Nadal at the time.

Without the mental block this would normally be a 3-0 for Fed.

2008 is considered greater only because it was more competitive.

I agree with OP, this match is placed where it should be.
 
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ForehandCross said:
No by quality it Should be top 3 top 5 at the very very worst. It shades 2008 F and 2018 SF even for me. And I have no real preferences here.


OP, you did a oopsie. Both Del Potro vs Djokovic and this ranks way Higher.
Click to expand...
IMO the 2007 final is overrated. High quality but no way it beats the W14 or W08 finals. Also lacked the drama of 09 and 19.
 
Jonesy said:
Very doubtful. This is not even the best quality match for both players.

Fed style was perfectly suited for grass.

It was not even about the matchup as Nadal forehand could't hurt Fed backhand like on clay.

Simply put, Fed had a big mental block when it came to play against Nadal at the time.

Without the mental block this would normally be a 3-0 for Fed.

2008 is considered greater only because it was more competitive.

I agree with OP, this match is placed where it should be.
Click to expand...


I have watched 2007 final like 4-5 times. I hold it in highest regard. It's subjective but In my eyes it's better in pure quality from 3 games in.

Maybe 2008 and 2018 have greater drama, but in shotmaking, 2007 shades both.

Also Del Potro vs Djokovic 2013 WB SF , is pretty darn good as well. One of the best matches I have seen. And it's only ranked 13 here.

To each to his own.
 
King No1e said:
IMO the 2007 final is overrated. High quality but no way it beats the W14 or W08 finals. Also lacked the drama of 09 and 19.
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Again watch the match, it's on YouTube. After first 3-4 error prone games, when nerves of either player were setting in , they play at a continued high quality.


The Commentator ends the match saying " Federer has won the greatest match of our times".


Again it's subjective, but I think I will place 2007 F and 2013 SF higher than where they are ranked.
 
This is the most quiet and respectful I’ve seen of the Wimbledon crowd in recent times, imagine if all matches were like this.
 
ForehandCross said:
I have watched 2007 final like 4-5 times. I hold it in highest regard. It's subjective but In my eyes it's better in pure quality from 3 games in.

Maybe 2008 and 2018 have greater drama, but in shotmaking, 2007 shades both.

Also Del Potro vs Djokovic 2013 WB SF , is pretty darn good as well. One of the best matches I have seen. And it's only ranked 13 here.

To each to his own.
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In terms of a blasting winners perspective, I completely agree. At one point they had hit 14 straight winners, and only 2 of those were aces. I think people rate 2008 over 2007 because of the last two sets of 2007, where one player wasn't playing particularly well, and the other was in a zone.
 
By the way that “highlights” video is pretty crap, not even championship point is shown, it just ends in Nadal challenging a shot and Federer’s name being added on the list of winners. And wierd cuts in the middle of points before they are finished, even during a serve there is a cut.
 
King No1e said:
IMO the 2007 final is overrated. High quality but no way it beats the W14 or W08 finals. Also lacked the drama of 09 and 19.
Click to expand...

450
 
SinneGOAT said:
By the way that “highlights” video is pretty crap, not even championship point is shown, it just ends in Nadal challenging a shot and Federer’s name being added on the list of winners. And wierd cuts in the middle of points before they are finished, even during a serve there is a cut.
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The highlights are utterly pathetic.
 
JaoSousa said:
last two sets of 2007, where one player wasn't playing particularly well, and the other was in a zone.
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Maybe in the 4th set, but in the 5th, the warrior and swiss legend played and fought incredibly hard for the first 5 games and rafa could not convert a break point while roger did. That could very well have been a change of era right there instead of what happened a year later. Roger raised his level considerably to break and then it was an all-out attacking display in the last 3 games, and when Roger is in that kind of zone, it would be impossible to stop him; even for the greatest defenders.
 
Both this and the '00 Rafter-Agassi SF are ranked too low, but I kinda like it. Most GOAT lists are boring/predictable AF and we could use a little curveball every now and then.

A tiny caveat: it was this match that brought me back to tennis so naturally I'm biased. Actually that's something of a mischaracterization cuz I'd never followed tennis 24/7 before then. Not sure I was even aware of any tennis tourney except Wimbledon in my prepubescent days, and don't remember watching any USO match until after I moved here. (Believe the '96 Pete-Goran SF was the very 1st live USO action I caught, though all I remember about Pete's opponent is that he was this tall, lanky servebot whose umpteen aces were making the commies chuckle.) Back then I liked underdogs like Korda, Rios and even Becker (my 1st tennis idol) and didn't care much for either Samprassi until Pete was going through his drought. And when he retired I lost almost all interest in tennis, and if I caught any of Dre's late runs live I've forgotten it by now.

Most of this was before streaming was a thing, so we're talking at most a handful of Wimby/USO matches, and maybe some more I might have caught on ESPN while channel surfing (I certainly didn't watch any of the AO matches live). But I was an early adopter of the internet (I was already placing online orders before Titanic was breaking all sorts of records) so I still kept abreast of the latest major developments in sports even when I wasn't trying. Fast forward to the mid-aughts and the Fedal rivalry is heating while Flash Player (RIP) and YouTube are about to revolutionize sports fandom (or everything else, really) for good. So I started paying more attention, though still stopping short of watching a tennis match in real time.

Until that Sunday, when I happened to be up early enough for the '07 Wimby final (I've always been a night owl). The rest, to paraphrase the cliche, is your nightmare as I continue to destroy your fanboy pleading with unimpeachable logic and unassailable facts and figures. But I'm nice and humble about it. Most of the time, anyway.

Oh and the '08 final was indeed even better, though like I said the other day this one was probably better shot for shot. I'll take GOATing and intensity in short bursts over "higher" yet relatively uneventful average level of play, thanks, especially when the former caps off the match in question. (The same reason, BTW, I prefer '13 Novak-Stan to '05 Safin-Fed or '09 Rafa-Dasco. I might even take '09 Rafa-Fed over those two.)
 
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