Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played one of the greatest matches in tennis history in the 2008 Wimbledon final. The match had a fantastic plot as the Swiss legend was trying to keep his supremacy on grass against the assault of Rafa was instead was unbeatable on clay. In the final, the Spaniard was outstanding especially after he had to deal with the disappointment of not being able to convert 2 match points before heading to the decider.
During a recent video with ESPN tenis, the Mallorca revealed that his uncle fell asleep during that match after the first of many stops caused by the rain. Rafa showed his funny side when he recalled the episodes saying that later he asked his uncle not to do the same when things got tough.
“I wasn’t nervous at all. As a matter of fact, I made fun of my uncle. He fell asleep in the locker rooms during the first stop due to rain when I was winning 2-0. During the last stop, after I lost 2 match points, I told him that it would be better if he didn’t sleep this time,” he revealed.
“The truth was that I was fine, I was convinced that I was not going to lose, well I could lose the final because the other one can beat me, but I was not going to lose. And that was it, I did not lose, he had the opportunity to win, but never lost my focus, I did not throw any point or anything.
I was focused all the time and honestly I thought I would have lost after the 4th set. However, I knew that there was a very good opportunity. I also knew that perhaps I would never be so close to winning Wimbledon again, so I never wanted negative thoughts to get me,” he added.
Who even falls asleep during a gs final let alone wimby08, drag him baby 👏🏼 pic.twitter.com/dhWCIRYd1C
— monse 🇪🇸 🌺 Buenos días (@coachdal) May 26, 2020
Eventually, Rafa ended up winning the match 6-4 6-4 6-75 6-78 9-7.
Roger Federer in 2020
At the moment ranked no.4, Roger played his last match on the 30th of January when he was overcome by Novak Djokovic 7-61 6-4 6-3 in the semifinal of the Australian Open.
Roger Federer’s best result of the present season was reaching the semi-finals at the Australian Open.
Rafael Nadal in 2020
Now the world no.2, the Spaniard played his last match on the 29th of February when he beat Taylor Fritz 6-3 6-2 in the final in Acapulco to win his 85th career title.
Currently, this season the Spaniard has a 13-3 win-loss record. Rafael has won 1 title in Acapulco.
Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal played each other 40 times. The head to head is 24-16 for Nadal. The last time that they squared off, Roger Federer won 7-63 1-6 6-3 6-4 in the semifinal in London (Wimbledon) in July 2019.
