Fed is still King!

The Times of India ran the headline "Fed is Ex, it's Nadal now" as soon as the Wimbledon final was over. They could not be more wrong. So Federer lost. That was supposed to happen someday. Even Sampras lost at Wimbledon, after 4 consecutive titles (his 7th overall). But that does not mean, Federer has been dethroned.

Didn't Federer beat Nadal in the last two finals at Wimbledon? So, doesn't the record say 2-1 in favor of Federer? Then why rebuke him for a loss. Yes, he lost, but he played a great match. It was just that Nadal was better. It was his game that made Federer commit so many unforced errors. But that does not mean Federer is history.

The important point here is that tennis fans were treated to the best match that has ever been played. Facing Championship points, Federer took the game away from Nadal with beautiful plays, made the match go to the final set which was, till Nadal broke Federer, a see-saw battle. I have to agree, Federer looked out of touch, but that was because Nadal played shots that pulled Federer away from his natural game. Nadal was the deserving winner, after an epic battle of 4 hours and 48 minutes. At the end, it wasn't Federer's loss that thrilled the audience and the fans, but the spectacular tennis that was played. I am sure, Federer will come back strong. He has the US series now to show he is still the best. Will he do it, we shall wait to see. But till then, no one should doubt his ability and his class. One loss is not the end of the world. But it's like they say, everyone remembers your downs more than your ups. How can they forget that he won at Wimbledon for the last 5 years, he has a win percentage of more than 80% and he has a record of 65 consecutive wins on grass, 56 on hard court, 10 consecutive Grand Slam finals appearances and has been ranked number 1 for 232 consecutive weeks. Now that's a record hard to beat, and all those people who want to write off this man, read these statistics and then think about criticizing him.