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Thursday 21 June 2012

The best of the best at Wimbledon

Since the dawn of Open Era, the top 2 seeds have met in the Wimbledon Championship match 12 times, with the top seed edging the second seed 7 times for the title.

The last time the top 2 seeds met in the final was last year, when Rafael Nadal took on Novak Djokovic. Djokovic was the second seed and he took out Nadal to win his first Wimbledon crown. Enjoy some of the highlights.


The first time top 2 seeds met in the final of Wimbledon was in 1972 when Stan Smith, the top seed defeated Ilie Năstase 46 63 63 46 75.

The last 2 times the top 2 seeds have faced each other for Wimbledon title, the second seed has been victorious. To find the last top seed who defeated the second seed for the championship, you have to go back to 2007, when Federer defeated Nadal to claim his 5th straight Wimbledon crown. Enjoy some of the highlights.


Let us have a look at who were the other top 2 seeds who met in the final and in which years they faced each other. The winner is indicated in bold.


Year       Top SeedSecond SeedScore
1972  Stan Smith  Ilie Năstase  46 63 63 46 75       
1977  Jimmy Connors         Bjorn Borg  36 62 61 57 64
1978  Bjorn Borg  Jimmy Connors       62 62 63
1980  Bjorn Borg  John McEnroe  16 75 63 67 86
1981  Bjorn Borg  John McEnroe  46 76 76 64
1982  John McEnroe  Jimmy Connors  36 63 67 76 64
2004  Roger Federer  Andy Roddick  46 75 76 64
2005  Roger Federer  Andy Roddick  62 76 64
2006  Roger Federer  Rafael Nadal  60 76 67 63
2007  Roger Federer  Rafael Nadal  76 46 76 26 62
2008  Roger Federer  Rafael Nadal  64 64 67 67 97
2011  Rafael Nadal  Novak Djokovic  64 61 16 63


The 1980 encounter of Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe is considered as one of the greatest matches of all time. McEnroe saved 5 championship points in the 4th set tie-break before winning the tie break 18-16. However, McEnroe failed to break Borg's serve in the decider loosing the decisive set 8-6.

In 2008 Rafael Nadal won his first Wimbledon crown by defeating the top seed Federer. The match is considered by many tennis experts as the best match ever played in the tennis history. At 4 hours and 48 minutes, the match was the longest singles final at a Wimbledon in terms of time played. Enjoy the highlights of the match.


Will it be the 13th time that the top seeds meet each other in the final? Or will Roger Federer and Andy Murray will have their say? Or will it be a player outside of the BIG 4 who will have his say? What do you say?
* I don't own any of these videos and they can be found on you-tube.

1 comment:

  1. well, surely the dream final isn't possible anymore :((((((
    Best of luck to Andy and all british fans

    (from just another Rafa fan)

    ReplyDelete