Yes, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer played one of the greatest matches ever

The sports world is still buzzing after yesterday's marathon men's Wimbledon championship match, pitting defending five-time Wimbledon champ Roger Federer against defending four-time French Open champ, Rafael Nadal. Both men showed why they're two of the world's premier athletes. Throughout this match, both didn't show signs of fatigue. They continued running down shots and hit some of the most remarkable winners I've ever seen. This has become one of the greatest rivalries in sports today.

I had a rooting interest all tournament for Nadal. He's charismatic on the court and works for every single point. I think his serve is underrated. Everyone marvels at his court coverage, looping topspin groundstrokes that are often proceeded by a hard flat winner, and his extraordinary counterpunching abilities. Yesterday, his serve proved to be the difference in the match. He was only broken once, while Federer's vaunted serve was broken three times. Nadal is able to hit a high percentage of first serves with a slicing, topspin serve that at times tops out over 125 mph. That's incredible to be able to hit a serve with that much action at that velocity.

After taking the first two sets, it appeared Nadal was on cruise control for finally getting the monkey off his back. The third set was no different. Nadal had Federer down 0-40 at 3 games all but failed to convert the service break. Subsequently, Federer held on and forced a tiebreaker which he eked out.

The fourth set also went to a tiebreak with Nadal at one point up 5-2 and two match points. Federer hit a courageous forehand that went for a winner to save one match point. Nadal's second opportunity was questionable. He had Federer on the defenisve and the entire court open. However, he hit another hard, topspin groundstroke right at Federer. Federer was able to nail another great groundstroke and extend the match to a fifth and deciding set.

Once the match reached the fifth set, I said to myself, "Nadal looks like he's going to choke again." The match was somewhat reminiscent of last year when Nadal was up a break in the fourth set, serving for the match but couldn't come through. Any other player probably would've been so mentally frustrated he or she would begin hitting silly shots for errors; not Nadal. He was able to stave off a relentless Federer and earned every bit of his newfound championship glory on a surface other than the red clay.

Matches of yesteryear just didn't have this type of play where both players grind it out during each point. All-time leader for most grand slam wins, Pete Sampras, is a perfect example. He heavily relied on a huge serve and volleys to win many easy points. Fans would often see Sampras as stoic, placid, and frankly, boring on the court. Still, he was a class act like Federer who displays Sampras' characteristics. The closest a match came to this type of drama would have to be the 1980 final between John McEnroe and Bjorn Borg when McEnroe won an epic fourth set tiebreak to force a fifth set before eventually losing to Borg. Those points in the tiebreak were incredible as well, but nothing could top an entire match that featured those types of points. Tennis' popularity should increase once again for what these two guys bring to the game. Expect this rivalry to continue for a long time.