It will probably never happen again.After seeing half a decade of Domination,seeing countless champions bite the dust ,two nerve wracking finals and four hours forty eight minutes later it was finally redemption.

It was unreal and just very indescribable*.I came back from Jam after a whole day of traveling and was resigned to the fact that the final would probably be over and was scared to even check when Debu turned on the TV but the match was still being played with the score on 6-6 4th set.The tie break that followed was just amazing tennis.Every time Nadal got a breakthrough Federer clawed back.It was won by Federer 10-8 and the rallies were just beautiful with Federer hitting a backhand winner down the line which just had genius stamped all over it.The match see-sawed so many times that it became difficult to sit still and the crowd at center court couldn't keep mum either with oohs and aahs at each and every point.

Finally it was big big relief to see Rafa win.I think all through out the match one could see that Federer was not his usually benign monk-face self and there was just this slight hint of a worry on his face whereas Nadal has become more and more composed as the years have gone by.then there were major changes in his game most noticeably the heavy top-spin on the forehand.He wasn't hitting flat out at all.I have never seen anyone play that shot for every point in a rally but Rafa really did.Another thing which I saw him do quite effectively is alternatively switching between the baseline and the volley game which would be pretty unnerving for anyone. He also combined this with some very acute angles and power hitting and sometimes-deep in a point you could almost feel Federer's helplessness though in the very next moment Fed would come up with one of those magically surreal shots which would sometimes even leave the linesmen gasping.But in the end it was Rafa's mental toughness more than any other factor which finally saw him through.After four and a half hours it was just too much for the 'inhuman' Fedex. For all those people who keep waxing eloquent on Fed and keep saying how perfect he is -all I have to say is that most people don't realize that Nadal was very very close to beating Fed last year.He was broken only in the 5th set last time around and this time not at all.so even though Federer had some twenty six aces to Nadal's six;Rafa still managed to not concede a service game.amen.***Hamilton winning the Silverstone being an added bonus.
**This is not say that I do not regard Fed as a great player but that maybe-just maybe his best days are behind him.

PS:Actually I checked and Federer did break Nadal once in the second set.The error is regretted.

UPDATE: so it was Gwen-the first lady of Rock and her hubby Gavin Rossdale beside Mirka-Fed's girlfriend at the final and even though I was suspicious I assumed it was some dumb Swedish blonde.I hope the final was not too agitating for dear Gwen in her current state: