Even if you aren’t a tennis fan, you could not help but be amazed by the display put on by Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer in the 2008 Wimbledon final. This match had everything: Three rain delays, two tiebreaks, brilliant, heart-stopping rallies, a long, adruous 5th set that culmnated in a 9-7 victory, and the coronation of a new champion–Rafael Nadal.

The defending champion - Roger Federer - showing the heart of a champion, fighting to the bitter end after going down two sets to none. Federer fought back to even the match at two sets a piece and, over the course of the match, staved off three championship points. Nadal badly choked away the fourth set, double-faulting on his first serve when he was up 5-2 in the tie break. Had he lost this match, he may have hanged himself in his hotel room…but that wasn’t necessary as he out-lasted Federer in a true test of mental and physical endurance in the 5th set to win 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7.

If you want to figure out the difference in the match, look no further than Federer going an abysmal 1 for 13 on break chances. That’s right, in all those games, Federer managed to break Nadal’s serve just once–in the second set, which he lost anyway (having been broken in consecutive service games that set). Federer, who had been broken just twice in all of 2008 Wimbledon (and twice in his last 11 grass court matches), was broken four times in total in this match.

Under normal circumstances, Federer would be contemplating suicide having seen his streak at Wimbledon come to an end (as well as his chances of winning 6 straight Wimbledons and becoming the first man to do it since the 19th century, an era of tennis in which the defending champion only needed to win one match to remain the champion), but on this day he could only feel a small sense of pride for being the loser in the greatest final in the history of tennis. While it was evident that Federer wanted to curl into a ball and cry himself to sleep, he remained gracious in defeat, congratulating Nadal on the hard-fought victory.

This loss essentially means that Nadal is now the top player in men’s tennis (although points-wise, he’s not ranked #1 yet), though with the Olympics coming up, as well as the U.S. Open, Federer has a chance to redeem himself and make things really interesting). With the courts on Wimbledon actually playing significantly slower than the courts at the U.S. Open these days, Federer goes into that tournament the favorite, although Novak Djokovic could pose problems. It will be interesting to see if Nadal’s knees can withstand the punishment they endure on hardcourts, or if his game can be as effective on a surface with that kind of speed.