By:
EBC Sports International, New York Bureau
Tennie Sumague
Joanne Blanco Soriano
(LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM)
Eleven Finals. Eight Championship Titles. Roger Federer is crowned the King of Wimbledon.
Federer proved to the world why he is the greatest tennis player of all time, making history by winning his eighth Wimbledon title – his 19th overall Grand Slam with a straight-set win over Marin Cilic 6-3, 6-1, 6-4 at the All-England Club Sunday afternoon.
Federer became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1976 to win Wimbledon without dropping a set and surpassed Pete Sampras and William Renshaw as the all-time leader in men’s titles.
“I have always believed that I could maybe come back and do it again. And if you believe, you can really, really go far in life, and I did that,” said Federer. “And I’m happy I kept on believing and dreaming, and here I am for the eighth. It’s fantastic”.
His first Wimbledon title came in 2003 as a rising 21-year old star in the ATP tour. He went on to win four straight titles against Andy Roddick and Rafael Nadal before losing a heartbreaking five-set match against Nadal in 2008 that left him in tears in front of Queen Elizabeth.
He won again in 2009 against Roddick in the longest men’s final, winning the fifth set 16-14 in a match that took 4 hours and 17 minutes to complete. His seventh title came in 2012 against home country favorite and current world number one player, Andy Murray.
“Wimbledon was always my favorite tournament, will always be my favorite tournament. My heroes walked the grounds here and walked the courts here. Because of them, I think I became a better player too,” Federer added. “To mark history here at Wimbledon means a lot to me, just because of all that, really. It’s that simple.”
Is he the Greatest of All Time? At 35, Federer became the oldest Wimbledon champion and with the U.S. Open still to come at the end of August, he has the chance to win three out of the four majors in the calendar year, a feat that he has already accomplished three times in his career.
The Greatest of All Time? Most certainly indeed.
