Wimbledon Re-Lived 2008: Rafael Nadal - King of grass

The Tennis Podcast

David Law

Tennis, Sports & Recreation, Wimbledon, Sports

4.5 • 2.6K Ratings

🗓️ 10 July 2020

⏱️ 77 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Finding new words to do justice to the 2008 men’s final at Wimbledon between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer is not easy, but that’s our task on this episode as we look back on the match regarded by many as the greatest in tennis history.

There’s talk about the sense before the match that it could finally be Nadal’s time, Federer’s missed opportunities in the first two sets, the way in which their match-up favoured Nadal, Federer’s fitful forehand, why the epic fourth set tiebreak echoed Borg-McEnroe, Nadal’s ability to recover in the fifth set as darkness fell, and the graciousness between the two camps.

We also hear from Mary Carillo who explains why the match lives up to the hype, Larry Stefanki about how Nadal had adapted his game to help him thrive on grass in 2008, Nadal’s PR manager, Benito Perez-Barbadillo, on how Nadal was feeling during the fifth set rain delay, and Chris Clarey to sum up the rivalry and relationship between Nadal and Federer.

The Tennis Podcast is presented by Catherine Whitaker and David Law, and features Matt Roberts. It is produced weekly year-round, and daily during the Grand Slam tournaments. It is crowdfunded by listeners each December.

* TENNIS RE-LIVED *

We will be doing daily shows throughout the original Wimbledon dates, looking back on some of the tournament’s best matches and most important stories. You can watch a full replay of Rafael Nadal vs. Roger Federer from 2008 on YouTube, as well as extended highlights and the final game of Andy Murray vs. Novak Djokovic in 2013, which we will cover tomorrow.

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hi, this is Mary and Bartoli. I'm Matt's Belander. This is Mary Carillo. I'm Stan Ravinka. I'm like Newt. I'm Andy Murray.
0:06.7	This is Yannick Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast.
0:20.8	Hello folks and welcome to Wimbledon Relived here on the tennis podcast episode 12. We have arrived at
0:29.6	the match that many most possibly considered to be the greatest tennis match of all time. Certainly
0:36.0	the greatest men's tennis match of all time. This actually is an episode that has been causing me a
0:42.1	little bit of anxiety over the past couple of weeks. I've had this one looming on the horizon. I've
0:47.2	been thinking how on earth can I personally possibly add to the myriad of wonderful words that have
0:58.8	been said about this match over the course of the last 12 years and how can David Law possibly add
1:04.8	to the wonderful words that he said about the match in the documentary Strokes of Genius?
1:10.5	There was released a year or so ago. It's over to you, Matt, I think.
1:17.9	I get nervous all the time talking about tennis and whether I can add to the conversation.
1:24.2	What you're feeling now is how I feel going into every podcast.
1:28.2	Really? Yeah. I have no idea.
1:32.4	David, you've already given your best material to a documentary. What have you got for us today?
1:40.4	Nothing, I've just got the documentary hook towel for the last press play.
1:46.7	I did rewatch it this morning, Strokes of Genius. It is an absolutely magical
1:53.6	illustration of a rivalry and how one match can sum up a rivalry. It's a work of art,
2:00.8	that documentary and you're a fantastic contributor to it. I do just genuinely worry,
2:06.0	you've used your best stuff. No, no, see, when I did it, I knew one day we would read it and I
2:13.1	thought, right, I'm going to get my sizable sleeves and I'm going to stick something up them.
2:17.9	Because you were there, weren't you? I mean, the reason that your contribution to that documentary
2:22.1	came about is because you were mentioned in the book that John Wurtheim wrote about the final,
	...

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