Most dramatic moments of the 2012 tennis season: Part Four – Tennis Special
Roger Federer’s seventh Wimbledon gold
Many tennis fanatics, including myself, believe that Roger Federer is undoubtedly the greatest tennis player of all times. His consistency and dominance over the tennis courts is something which every upcoming player desires to
achieve in this sport. He has been piling up records for years and is still reigning the world number one spot.
Struggling for reclaiming glory at the start of the running year, Federer finally got hands on his 17th Grand Slam title this season. It was the seventh time that Federer lifted the prestigious trophy at Wimbledon Championships,
levelling the record with the legendary American, Pete Sampras.
It was not an easy task to achieve for the Swiss Maestro. He was facing strong criticism for not winning a Grand Slam for almost two years and many critics even believed that he was not capable of winning any Major title. Federer’s
stunning performance against the home favourite, Andy Murray, in the final of Wimbledon shut all the criticism, proving his class and reminding everyone that he is still the true champion.
With his seventh Wimbledon title victory, Federer not only become the man with the most number of grass-court Grand Slam trophies but he reclaimed his world number one throne from the Serbian juggernaut, Novak Djokovic. Although
he currently shares this record with Sampras, he needs to successfully defend his Wimbledon title next season to surpass the American legend. His return to the world number one spot also broke Sampras’ record of retaining the world number one spot for 287
weeks. Federer has now gone past even 300 weeks!
Rafael Nadal falling in the second round at Wimbledon
Upsets do happen in every tennis tournament but it is rare to see the world number three player falling in merely the second round of a Grand Slam event. To me, Rafael Nadal’s second round loss at the Wimbledon Championships as
one of the biggest upsets of the 2012 ATP season.
Being one of the hot favourites for winning the Grand Slam title, no one was expecting Nadal to fall out of the mega event at such early stage, especially at the hands of a player ranked at number 100 in the ATP World Rankings.
It was Czech Republic’s Lukas Rosol who stunned the King of Clay in a gruelling five setter, 6-7(9), 6-4, 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, to sideline him from the race to glory.
Nadal was already suffering from the niggling ankle injury at the Wimbledon campaign and couldn’t present his usual aggression against Rosol, eventually failing to hold on the counter-attack from the Czech opponent and losing the
match in the end. The Spaniard hasn’t been seen in action ever since his Wimbledon defeat and is still sidelined from the professional circuit due to his troubling ankle.
It has been almost four months since Nadal took his injury lay-off and his absence from the courts has pushed him down to the world number four spot. He is expected to make his comeback at the season-ending grand finale, the Barclays
ATP World Tour Finals in November but this hasn’t still been confirmed from the Spaniard.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are the writer's own and in no way represent Bettor.com's official editorial policy.
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