Summary
Wimbledon was Federer's favorite tournament. He won the junior title in 1998 but had yet to win as a professional. He entered the tournament with pretty good results from the clay court season by going as far as the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo and beating No. 2 Marat Safin allowing him to move onto the third round of the Italian Open. He ended the clay season at the French Open with his best Grand Slam results yet reaching the quarterfinals.
Federer entered his third time into Wimbledon ranked No. 15 in the world. He got past the first round with an easy win over Christophe Rochus with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory followed by another victory in the second round against well known Xavier Malisse. He finally defeated Jonas Bjorkman and this put him in the draw of 16 for the first time. On the day of his quarterfinal match, it was unseasonably warm and for the first time, Federer was stepping onto Centre Court. Little did he know that he would be playing Pete Sampras, the leader at the time of Grand Slam titles with fourteen Grand Slams under his belt. The stage was set. Surprisingly, Federer had no qualms about himself that day and walked onto the grass confident, looking for a win. After a grueling three hours, and forty-one minutes, Federer drove a return down the line, and everyone that was watching became speechless as Sampras watched it go past him. Time stood still for Federer, and as soon as he was able to take it all in, he fell to his knees and cried tears of joy. He beat Sampras 7-6(7), 5-7, 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 at 7:20 PM. Surely, he was on every newspaper by the next day and was bombarded by the media. Unfortunately, his semifinal match against Tim Henman, Britain's No.1 player, met with defeat.
Federer was plagued with injuries after, injuring his hip muscle and developed shin splints. He spent his 20th birthday in Biel to undergo physical therapy, and there he found Michael Lammer, a rival from his junior years. He did not return until the end of the US Open and from there his ranking just fell, finishing the year as No. 13.
Federer decided that he had to learn discipline on the court which was keeping him back from reaching the top ten. he went into Hamburg with little expectations and won his first round match. This feeling of liberation was a relief to him. In the finals, he had no trouble defeating Marat Safin, and won his thrid ATP Masters event. This brought his ranking up into the top ten for the first time.
Quote
"After three hours and 41 minutes of play, he slammed a forehand return of serve for a winner on match point to close out a 7-6(7), 5-7, 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 victory." (Stauffer 78)
Reaction
This was obviously the biggest win of his entire life. He just took out the biggest man on the tennis scene as an underdog and went from a lowly tennis player to what some would call the next greatest champion. This not only denied Sampras the chance to repeat history with five consecutive Wimbledon titles, but was also a significant milestone in his career. After this win, he did not have to try and get lucky to be invited to ATP events but were actually requested to join. No one has beaten Sampras for the last 5 years and then comes Federer who was actually lucky to make it to the main draw, and surprises the entire tennis world.
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