Federer Wins Record 8th Wimbledon Title in Blowout Final

I said I wouldn’t make another post about this Wimbledon because of their biased scheduling but you know me, I can’t stay angry for long. Congrats to Federer for finally breaking the record for the most Wimbledon title as he surpasses the record he held with Sampras.

Today he defeated Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 to achieve this incredible record. Unfortunately, the final was even more one-sided than I predicted. After Djokovic lost I said Federer would win the title without dropping a set but I expected a better fight from Cilic in the final.

The key moment came very early in the match. Cilic started very well after a shaky opening service game and had a break point on Federer’s serve at 2-2 and 40-30 but missed a return off a second serve from Federer right into the net. Absolutely unforgivable.

I was waiting for Cilic to choke from the beginning because he was always a bit of a choker to me and it happened in no time. When you get a second serve on break point you at the absolute least make the other guy play. But by making an unforced error on that return he showed Federer weakness right away and from there on it was one-way traffic.

I felt it was the boring no-contest final Wimbledon deserved after their biased scheduling. It was a bit of a disaster to be honest because Cilic even started crying at one point. Can you imagine? What a tragic way for Federer to achieve such an incredible milestone.

The whole thing had the feeling of a setup about it like Federer was handed the 8th title on a silver platter. I said in my last post that it is actually quite sad that if Federer wins his 8th title under these conditions but I didn’t think it would be this much on anti-climax and I can’t help but feel like it was bad karma.

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The moment @rogerfederer won #Wimbledon title No.8 pic.twitter.com/rMzNNA6M0K

— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) July 16, 2017

But they got the winner and the storyline they wanted so I’m sure Wimbledon is not too unhappy, even though it was the most one-sided Wimbledon final since 2002. It was not unlike the French Open where Nadal didn’t drop a set on his way to the title and then the final was a one-sided blowout.

But this was the first time Federer didn’t drop a set on his way to the title whereas Nadal had done it before at the French. I wonder where are the Fedfans who kept using Federer’s terminal decline as an excuse for his string of devastating losses to Djokovic in 2014-16 now.

Clearly, Federer is playing as well as if not better than ever which I have stated all along and which Fedfans have vehemently argued against. They just could not deal with the fact that Djokovic at his best is simply a better player than Federer as evidenced by his unmatched dominance from 2014-2016.

When Djokovic chalked up the most dominant season in 2015 and completed the personal slam in 2016 I knew he had done something that no one could ever take away from him and which not even Federer would ever achieve. But at least by winning the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year Federer achieved some pretty good things himself.

I mean it’s hardly believable, to be honest, that after 5 years of winning his last slam and a 6-month break that he came back to win the Australian Open and Wimbledon in the fashion that he did but in the absence of evidence you have to assume it was done without resorting to anything illegal.

Federer is now 36 which is ancient in tennis and it seems he just keeps getting better and better. The fact that he won Wimbledon is also similar to Nadal winning the French Open in the sense that to me Federer was already the greatest on grass ever and that winning another title didn’t really prove anything new to me.

#19 tastes great pic.twitter.com/3Hv3lM5Rk9

— Roger Federer (@rogerfederer) July 16, 2017

It sure is the perfect plot. I’m not going to deny that. But if I was Federer I would rather have won the title by defeating Djokovic along the way or at least one of Nadal or Murray. But Djokovic is the guy who defeated Federer in his last two Wimbledon finals. That said, I’m kinda glad Wimbledon screwed Djokovic with the schedule because he was obviously not healthy and I would have hated for him to lose to Federer if he wasn’t 100% healthy.

Federer can have his ’empty’ victory. Djokovic still leads the head-to-head(23-22), the head-to-head in slam finals(3-1), and the head-to-head in slams(9-6). The outcomes of the French Open and Wimbledon just shows you how badly tennis needs a healthy Djokovic. Without him abusing Federer and Nadal these two would literally dominate the sport with no interference from anyone, least of all the tournament organizers and mainstream media.

So hopefully, Djokovic will be healthy again soon but he has set himself back pretty badly with his poor scheduling and I don’t expect him to be ready of healthy for the US Open yet so we will probably have to endure some more boring dominance from Federer and Nadal until then.

But once Djokovic is healthy again I can see him, Agassi, and Ancic doing a lot of damage together because I think the Agassi partnership has, even more, potential than the Becker one.

Let me know what you think.

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