Wimbledon Takeaway #7: Best men's match
Rafael Nadal and Gilles Muller provided the showdown of the fortn
A peculiarly scorching sun had its way with the Wimbledon grass over this fortnight. But the sun also sets. Here, our ongoing roundup of passing shots from SW19, a curated much-ado-about-everything – if a bit less manicured than the Wimble-lawns themselves.
See No. 8.
7
Ah, tennis players: Sometimes they actually are just like us. I mean, will you just look: They shop! Publicly!
They also absentmindedly bonk their heads and then they go out and play five-set thrillers:
That, all of that, is Rafael Nadal in a nutshell: relatable, intense, focused and fighting to the death. We'll get to the victor, to whom the spoils surely went, in a second. For now, let's salute the two-time Wimbledon singles champion, the man singularly known as Rafa, for his incredible showing.
Consider just how clean of a match he played—and lost.
Then, ever the gent, he stuck around to walk off court with Muller–or so far as nearly reaching the partition that leads players down their getaway tunnel, before signing a flurry of autographs even in a happiness-battering defeat.
This was Muller's time, though. The Luxembourgian—come on, that's just plainly fun to say–won his virgin ATP title in January just before the Australian Open, where he wept openly before his wife and child.
His peers in the pro game took note, to be sure.
Muller remained "Zen," to the point and understated, both within the match and even afterward:
Even so, he and Nadal delivered the premier match of these Championships:
When it was over, after Nadal had outrun but not outplayed Muller, what we had was a grass-tennis master class and one of the 2017 season's best, most entertained bouts. Take a bow, both of you.
Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.