Roger Federer reveals moment when he thought Rafael Nadal ‘has finally got my number’

Rafael Nadal famously denied Roger Federer six consecutive titles at Wimbledon as he won their classic final at SW19 in 2008 and the Swiss great admits he “lost at the very first point of the match”.

Just weeks after Nadal “crushed” Federer 6–1, 6–3, 6–0 in the 2008 French Open final, the pair met again on Championship Sunday at Wimbledon.

The outcome was the same as the Spaniard won his first Grand Slam at the All England Club, although this time they took a more scenic route as they battled for four hours and 48 minutes before Nadal won 6-4, 6–4, 6–7(5–7), 6–7(8–10), 9–7 in the dark on Centre Court.

Federer opened up about one of the greatest tennis matches of all time when he delivered the graduation speech at Dartmouth College in the United States.

“I tried not to lose, but I did lose. Sometimes, big. For me, one of the biggest was finals at Wimbledon in 2008. Me versus Nadal,” the 20-time Grand Slam winner started off.

“Some call it the greatest match of all time… all respect to Rafa, but I think it would’ve been way, way better if I had won. Losing at Wimbledon was a big deal. Because winning Wimbledon was everything.

“In 2008, I was going for a record six consecutive titles, I was playing for history. I’m not going to walk you through the match point by point, if I did we would be here for hours, almost five hours to be exact.”

Roger Federer reveals his honest opinion on a young Novak Djokovic and admits he lacked respect

Wimbledon set for Big Three watershed moment with Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal set to miss tournament

The Swiss great admitted he was a beaten man right from the word go.

He added: “We found ourselves at seven all in the fifth and I understand why people focus on the end. The final minutes were so dark, you could barely see the chalk on the grass but looking back, I feel like I lost at the very first point of the match.

“I looked across at the net and I saw a guy, who just a few weeks ago crushed me in straight sets at the French Open. And I thought, ‘Maybe this guy is hungrier than I am, and he’s finally got my number.’

“It took me until the third set to remember, ‘Hey buddy, you’re the five-time defending champion, and you’re on grass, by the way! You know how to do this.’ But it came too late and Rafa won, and it was well deserved.

“Some defeats hurt more than others. I knew I would never get a shot at six in a row, I lost Wimbledon, I lost my number one ranking and suddenly people said: ‘He had a great run, is this the changing of the guard?’ But I knew what I had to do – keep working and keep competing. In tennis, perfection is impossible.”