Four weeks later, Nadal punched a mighty hole through Federer's aura of invincibility to end the Swiss man's five-year reign as Wimbledon champion.

In the longest and most nerve-jangling final seen at the All England Club, Nadal survived two rain breaks and an astonishing Federer fightback to claim a sensational 6-4 6-4 6-7 6-7 9-7 victory as dusk fell over southwest London.

While Nadal became the first man since Bjorn Borg in 1980 to complete the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double in the same year, Federer lost his chance of eclipsing the Swede and setting a modern-era record of six successive Wimbledon titles.

Being part of a match described by pundits as the greatest ever seen provided little consolation to the stylish Swiss.

"It's tough, it hurts. This is a disaster, Paris was nothing in comparison," said a forlorn Federer.

Nadal and Federer had met 17 times before but none of their previous encounters could match the drama and intensity of the four-hour-48-minute theatre witnessed by almost 15,000 fans lucky enough to hold Centre Court tickets.

No losers

"Unbelievable match! It was an amazing spectacle! It was the greatest match I have ever witnessed. It had so much drama," said former champion John McEnroe.

"This day (is one) that we're not going to forget. This was a win for tennis and I'd like to think there were no losers."

Despite reaching a semi-final and two finals in the season's first three majors, Federer was irked to see that critics had started to pen his tennis obituary after he was beaten by players such as Mardy Fish, Radek Stepanek and Gilles Simon.

Andy Roddick was among those rivals who rallied behind him.

"I know pretty much every player except for one that would take his bad year. So I think you have to use a little bit of perspective," said the American.

Those ready to write him off would have done well to study the obstacles a resilient Federer had overcome.

Despite suffering from the debilitating effects of glandular fever, he still managed to turn up at every event he had committed himself to. The same illness had kept Croatia's Mario Ancic off the tennis courts for six months in 2007.

Just when it seemed that Federer would walk away from the majors empty-handed, he reminded the world of his sublime touch and impeccable timing to capture an Olympic doubles gold and a fifth successive US Open.

The Flushing Meadows showpiece also set the stage for an enthralling 2009 as Britain's Andy Murray finally came of age to reach his first notable final.

The exploits of Serbia's Djokovic, who trails Federer by just 10 points in the rankings, and Murray indicated that the Federer-Nadal duopoly in men's tennis had at last been broken.

The women's game is likely to remain more unpredictable since each of the four slams produced a different winner -- Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Venus and Serena Williams claiming the honours at the Big Four.

A knee injury kept Nadal out of the Davis Cup final in November but his lesser-known compatriots pulled off a shock 3-1 win away to Argentina.

Russia, led by Svetlana Kuznetsova, won the Fed Cup for the fourth time in five seasons with a whitewash of Spain.

(Agencies via Shanghai Daily December 18, 2008)