Sunday, 8 July, 2007
With Bjorn Borg watching from the royal box, Roger Federer underlined his greatness today, chalking up his fifth consecutive Wimbledon title. It wasn’t easy though: Rafael Nadal took Federer to five sets. The Swiss player needed to be at his best in what turned out to be the third longest men’s singles final in Wimbledon’s history. When Rafa broke him twice in the fourth set, Federer withdrew into himself, refocused and re-centred himself and came out for a breathtaking final set. The final will go into the annals of classic matches. Federer turned out eventual winner 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 6-2. Nadal portended his return next year. The big and pleasant surprise of the tournament was the scratch mixed doubles partnership of Briton Jamie Murray and Serb Jelena Jankovic taking on all-comers and walking off with the title and the biggest smiles in SW19. In the six matches they played, they beat the 3rd seeds, the 14th seeds, the 9th seeds, the 11th seeds and the 5th seeds. With the French beaten in the semis of the men’s singles and the final of the Ladies’ Singles, they found reward in the Men’s Doubles. After dropping the first set, 10th seeds Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra turned the final around to beat top seeds and title holders Bob Bryan and Mike Bryan of the United States. To celebrate they stripped off their shirts and threw them to the crowds, along with their tennis racquets. Llodra exhausted his supply of shirts. In order not to collect the trophy semi-naked, he was saved by his partner’s brother, Bruno, who was in the players’ box. Bruno stripped off his own shirt and threw it down to Llodra. Second seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber regained the Ladies’ Doubles Trophy which they last held aloft two years ago. Having dropped the first set they clawed their way back into the final, taking it from Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik and Ai Sugiyama of Japan, the No.4 seeds. Written by Sally Easton
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