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December 24, 2007
The Year in Sports 2007: Stories of Tennis
Roger Federer's Moment of Truth
By L. Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated
Cartwheeling
with topspin, the ball made a hard left turn as it skidded off the
grass, seemingly headed for the courtside flower boxes. In full stride
Roger Federer caught up with it and, in one fluid motion, cocked his
racket and fired a forehand past Rafael Nadal that nearly left a divot
when it bounced inside the baseline. It was midway through the fifth
set of the Wimbledon final: the most important moment of the most
important match of the most important tournament in tennis. If ever
there were time to conjure sensational shots, this was it. Until
that afternoon of July 8, 2007, one could have made the case that
Federer had never had a moment of truth -- a gut check, as a high
school football coach might call it. Sure, the Mighty Fed had done an
almost absurd amount of winning over the past few years, taking 10 of
the last 16 Grand Slam singles titles, reaching the finals of the last
nine majors and, for all intents and purposes, ending the
who's-the-greatest-player-ever debate. But it all seemed to come so
easily to him. Consider the 2007 Australian Open, which Federer won
without dropping a set. As James Blake joked last spring, "I still
don't think I've seen Roger sweat." That summer afternoon at the
All England Club, Federer was sweating. Four weeks earlier he'd lost to
Nadal, the grind-and-pound Spaniard, in the French Open final. While
that defeat stung, it wasn't altogether unexpected given that clay is
Federer's least favorite surface. But were Federer to fall to his rival
on the lawn of Wimbledon -- well, that would alter the balance of power
in men's tennis. And it would amplify the whispers that for all the
calligraphic beauty of Federer's tennis, he lacked a taste for combat. Yet
fired up by that masterly running forehand, which broke Nadal's serve
to give Federer a commanding 4-2 lead in the fifth set, the world No. 1
cruised through the next two games. Within 15 minutes he was dropping
to his knees in victory, and all was right with the tennis world.
Federer had won Wimbledon for the fifth straight time, and two months
later he would win his fourth consecutive U.S. Open. He finished 2007
within two titles of tying Pete Sampras's record of 14 career majors. All
told, it was a typically gilded year for Federer, not appreciably
better or worse than the preceding one. But his display of mettle in
the critical moments of the Wimbledon final marked this season as the
one in which Federer was not merely a winner but also a champion.
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