This year’s Wimbledon final loss of Roger Federer to Rafael Nadal was, in Roger’s words, the most painful loss he’s had in his career so far.

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And it shows in two ways:

• Roger has lost confidence and belief in his sometimes almost supernatural abilities, and thus doesn’t use them, and so fails to blow his opponents off the court; and
• His opponents see that he is not as dominant as he used to be, and that they even have a chance of beating him.

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Rafael Nadal has won an incredible match against Roger Federer in the final of the 2008 Wimbledon. There have been many speculations whether Roger’s domination in Wimbledon is fading and whether Nadal has improved his game enough to threaten Roger on grass.

RYAN PIERSE / AFP / Getty Images

Here are 5 reasons why Nadal made it this year:

1. Greater hunger
Federer has won Wimbledon 5 times already, has 12 Grand Slam titles and has been No.1 in the world for the last 5 years. Nadal on the other hand has won only 3 French Open titles so far, lost twice in the Wimbledon final and has been #2 in the world for the last 5 years.

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I enjoyed watching Federer – Nadal semifinals match at the Masters tournament in Shanghai last night.

There were a couple of situations where I noticed how Roger outthought Rafael.

Photo by Andrew Wong / Getty Images

The most evident was the situation at 4:4 at 15:30 on Federer’s serve.

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I received this interesting question from one of the readers.

And since Pete Sampras and Roger Federer will actually play an exhibition match on 22nd of November in Kuala Lumpur, this may be the right time to ponder such a question.

In my opinion, the end result depends mostly on the surface.

I’ve seen both players play their best tennis and will try to make my best guess at who wins if we were somehow able to have Pete Sampras play Roger Federer when they were at their best.

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Roger Federer won his third round US Open 2007 match against John Isner with a 6-7 (4), 6-2, 6-4, 6-2 score.

He was having trouble with Isner’s serve who served 9 aces in the first set, had a 72% of the first serve and won 79% of points when the first serve went in.

But something remarkably happened in the second and third set: Federer played 105 points without an unforced error!

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Novak Djokovic achieved an incredible feat this week in Montreal by beating Andy Roddick, ranked #3 in quarterfinals, Rafael Nadal, ranked #2 in semifinals and Roger Federer, ranked #1 in the final.

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The score in the final was 7-6, 2-6, 7-6.

It’s quite unusual to see Roger Federer lose in the final since we got so used to seeing him winning.

Roger lost only 7 finals since 2003 (before Montreal) and won 40.

He lost 6 of the finals to Rafael Nadal and one to David Nalbandian.

This makes Novak Djokovic only the third player in the last 4 years that was able to beat Roger Federer in the final.

How did Djokovic accomplish that?

Here’s what the players said in their interviews after the match:

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Roger Federer won the record fifth Wimbledon title today beating Rafael Nadal 7-6(9-7), 4-6, 7-6(7-3), 2-6 6-2.

I watched the match from the second set on and here are some things I noticed during the match:

©PA / R. Naden

Rafael Nadal:

1. Played extremely aggressive in the first 4 sets.

Even one of the interviewers asked him if playing closer to the lines was a change of strategy for Federer.

Rafa was aware of the situation and raised his game to another level.

2. Served high percentage of first serves (71%) and was broken only once in first four sets.

He knew that second serves will be attacked by Federer and adjusted.

Combine this with his aggressive play from the baseline and he was at the same level as Roger for four sets. (more…)

Although there are many smaller reasons why Roger Federer lost to Rafael Nadal in the recent French Open 2007 final, there is one major reason.

It can be found even in many of his interviews after the match and it’s included in the recent post 5 Things You Can Learn From Federer And Nadal.

So what is it? (more…)

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer shared some very interesting thoughts in their interviews after the French Open final which Nadal won 3:1.

Here are top 5 things you can learn from each player – mental, tactical, technical or physical tips. (more…)

Roger Federer has tied John MnEnroe’s record streak of 11 consecutive straight-sets win in Grand Slams.

He won 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 6-4 against Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and has reached quarter finals of the French Open.

Roger’s straight sets wins started in the Australian Open where he won his 10th Grand Slam title. (more…)