Switzerland’s Roger Federer claimed his 19th Grand Slam title 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 and at 35 he is Wimbledon’s oldest men’s winner of the modern era, succeeding Arthur Ashe, who was almost 32 when he won Wimbledon Singles trophy in 1975. So, it was game, set, match, championship and history for Roger Federer. Pete Sampras is behind him with seven titles to his credit. He is also the second male player after Nadal to win a particular Grand Slam title for more than seven times. Nadal has won French open 10 times and it is a unique record so far. The win at Wimbledon without dropping a set was achieved after 41 years when Bjorn Borg did this in the year 1976. This is also the second time for the seasoned Swiss player to win a Grand Slam title without dropping a set. The 2007 Australian Open win was the first time. Only Nadal with 14 Grand Slam titles can topple the record of 19 titles if Roger Federer calls it a day. The seventh seeded Croatian, the 2014 US Open champion, sobbed inconsolably and buried his head in his towel as his title dream slipped away.
One notable feature of this year’s Wimbledon is that all the top players lost and Federer was the lone ranger at the last four stage. Nadal could not go beyond 4th round, Murray lost out without much fight in his home turf and Djokovic could not carry with his injury and conceded the game and crashed out of the Wimbledon. Cilic discomfort was joy for Federer as he need not sweat it out against an injured opponent and the fight with Murray, Djokovic and Rafa Nadal behind him in fitting finals earlier. Federer walk into glory as he swept his opponent out of court for record win at the Wimbledon. For Cilic it was disaster as he could not fight out a royal battle at the centre court and give the Champion a run for his money.
M.R. Jayanthi
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