2006 breakfast at wimbledon

After a couple of weeks and some really great matches, the 2006 men’s tennis championship at Wimbledon was finally decided today – giving my bomb, Roger Federer his fourth straight title at Wimbledon, and his eighth Grand Slam!

At almost three hours of play, the championship match proved to be as exciting as had been expected. Going into the match, Rafael Nadal had held his serve 80 consecutive times during the tournament. Federer managed to break his serve during the first game, and then completely dominated, taking the first set (6-0) in only 24 minutes!

The second set also went to Federer, but only after a tiebreak decided it. Nadal narrowly managed to claim the third set – also in a tiebreak… but then Federer won the championship, taking the fourth set (6-3). For 2006, Roger Federer’s record is 55-0 against all players (aside from Nadal) – but his career record against Nadal is 1-6 (0-4 this year), so this win was important for him. Nadal, who was seeded and ranked No. 2, is still well behind Federer in points in the world rankings, but has been able to find a way to defeat Federer.

"I'm very well aware of how important this match was for me. If I lose, obviously, it's a hard blow for me -- he wins French, Wimbledon back-to-back," Federer said. "It's important for me to win a final against him, for a change, and beat him, for a change. At Wimbledon, I knew it was going to be the place for me to do it the easiest way."

Today’s win at Wimbledon gives Roger Federer the distinction of matching only Björn Borg and Pete Sampras in four consecutive Wimbledon wins. Sampras won a total of seven (4 consecutively), and Borg won five consecutive championships. Those of you who follow tennis know how great Federer is to watch. I’m very much looking forward to spending a few days at the US Open later this summer, and hopefully getting to see him play again.

In case anyone is interested, or maybe missed it, here’s a good profile on Federer that ran on ESPN earlier in the tournament.