Mike Celizic

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer were in overtime in the fifth set. Darkness was hunkering down over centre court at Wimbledon. And you had to be asking yourself how many times in one year can we be treated to a spectacle unlike any we have ever seen?

Who knows what is the greatest match or game ever played? It is a subjective judgment, and there is no way to fairly evaluate events that occur outside of the ambit of our own experience. And even within the span of an individual life, events that occur when we are young and most impressionable stand out as greater than those that come later.

I’m on the other side of young and impressionable, but I’ve got to say what I saw Sunday is something I’ve never seen before and find it impossible to imagine I will ever see again. It was beyond thrilling, beyond compelling, beyond riveting. It was the best. Period.

Considering what’s already been served up for us, it’s almost unfair for any one year to contain so much greatness. Only six months into it and it’s already the best ever.

It began with the greatest football team most of us had ever seen losing the Super Bowl thanks to the impossibly heroic performance of Eli Manning, David Tyree and the New York Giants.

Just three weeks ago, that performance was eclipsed by Tiger Woods, who limped and grimaced and winced his way through 91 unforgettable holes of golf to beat Rocco Mediate, the golfing everyman, in the U.S. Open.

Woods confirmed his greatness in victory, and Federer did the same thing in defeat, pushing Nadal to a level of greatness that shouldn’t be possible. Like Woods’ win, it was a once-in-a-lifetime performance, a changing of the guard every bit as thrilling as that which we witnessed in the Super Bowl. It had been seven years since anyone not named Roger Federer had won at Wimbledon and 28 since anyone had won both the French Open and the All-England Final. We saw both streaks ended in one long and spectacular day.

Just as the Patriots failed to match the ’72 Dolphins’ unbeaten season, Federer failed to match Bjorn Borg’s record of six straight Wimbledon championships. It was not for lack of talent or effort or heart or anything else. He lost the first two sets, then fought back, winning the third in a tiebreaker. In the fourth set, he went to another tiebreaker and refused to surrender when Nadal had two set points.

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