FED:INCREDIBLE CHANCEMISSED
IT was the final that had everything – except another fairytale victory for Roger Federer.
A month short of his 38th birthday the world No.3 had two match points to become the oldest Grand Slam singles champion in history when he served for the match at 8-7 in the fifth set.
Where did it go wrong? “One shot I guess,” replied Federer. “So I don’t really know which one to pick. Your choice.”
After gaining revenge on Rafa Nadal in the semifinals for his epic defeat in the 2008 final, Federer set another unwelcome record for losing the longest men’s final in Wimbledon history.
This showpiece was nine minutes longer than 11 years ago.
The Swiss maestro said: “You take it on your chin, you move on.
“You try to forget, try to take the good things out of this match. There’s just tons of it.
“Like similar to 2008 maybe, I will look back at it and think, ‘Well, it’s not that bad after all’.
“For now it hurts, and it should, like every loss does here at Wimbledon.
“I don’t know if losing 2-2-2 feels better than this one. At the end it actually doesn’t matter to some extent. You might feel more disappointed, sad, over angry. I don’t know what I feel right now.
“I just feel like it’s such an incredible opportunity missed, I can’t believe it.”
The 20-time Grand Slam winner won four more points, served more aces and looked the better player until the crucial moments in the three tiebreaks.
“It really doesn’t matter actually,” Federer said of the stats. “I know what I did well, how close I was. I think I can be happy about my performance.”