Sunday, July 14, 2019.
That’s the day tennis died for me, the day that still haunts me and saddens me and makes me wonder why, oh, why the Wimbledon gentleman’s singles final had to end the way it did. In case you’ve forgotten or never knew, that’s also the last time Roger Federer would reach a Grand Slam final, falling to Novak Djokovic after having two match points on his racquet in the 16th game of the fifth and deciding set.
The great Federer had just served two aces at Centre Court of the All-England Club to go ahead 40-15 that sunny afternoon after nearly five hours atop the world’s most famous lawn. Win just one of the next two points and he would own 21 Grand Slam singles titles, which would be three more than his closest pursuer to that point, Rafael Nadal.
Win just one of those next two points and he could conceivably retire at that moment as the Greatest Of All Time, the so-called GOAT of his sport, and with little tangible reason for anyone to argue otherwise.
Only trouble was, he didn’t win. Djokovic broke him. They played eight more games, then went to a tiebreaker that had never before been used to decide a fifth set at Wimbledon. The Djoker won that tiebreak 7-3 against an exhausted Fed, the third time in his career he’d knocked off the Swiss Maestro in a Grand Slam after being down a match point against him.