2012 Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Recap: Federer Makes More History
By Steen Kirby, TennisEastCoast.com
Roger Federer tied Pete Sampras’ record of 7 Wimbledon titles and recaptured the number 1 ranking, methodically out doing a tenacious Andy Murray ,4-6 7-5 6-3 6-4 for his 3rd victory over Murray in a slam final and making Britain and Murray fans (like myself) terribly unhappy once more. Fed continues to reign as the maestro of grass.
Murray came out hot and fed off the crowds energy to break at the end of the 1st set and take it 6-4, but Federer put himself in another gear, breaking at the end of the 2nd set to take it 7-5 after Murray had multiple break point chances he was unable to convert. After a rain delay to put the roof on, Fed kept up the pace, breaking Murray in some long games in the 3rd and taking it 6-3. He closed out in the 4th over a dejected Murray 6-4, who fought to the bitter end while Ivan Lendl just sat there. Federer thumped away with serves, forehands and backhands. Afterwards, Murray and his fans shed tears of sadness and frustration.
In week 2, Federer ran roughshod over Xaiver Malisse, Mikhail Youzhny, who did well to make the quarterfinals, and then world number 1 Novak Djokovic in 4, denying the Serbian a chance to repeat at SW19.
Murray kept the home nation on edge and finally reached the final, after beating Marin Cilic, a gutsy David Ferrer in 4 (including 3 tiebreaks), and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who struggled early but pulled it together. Tsonga gave Murray a run for his money at the end of the match. Murray still triumphed in 4 sets, 2 of which were great tennis. It was an exciting week 2 to say the least, but Britain will continue to wait for its first men’s singles champion since 1937 and Murray will continue to wait for a slam victory, as he lost his 4th final and his 3rd slam final to Federer. Still, it was a surprising run given how inconsistent he had been recently.
On the doubles side, the Brits did get a ray of light as wild card Brit Jonathan Marray and Dane Frederik Nielsen took the title over Robert Lindstedt and Horia Tecau. Marray is the first Brit to win mens doubles since 1936, while Nielsen made some family history of his own as his grandfather Kurt made the Wimbledon men’s singles finals in 1953 and 1955 (losing both times). Jamie Murray also won the mixed doubles title with Jelena Jankovic in ’07 at Wimbledon.
