Wimbledon 2017

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 An anticlimatic Wimbledon final against a valiant Marin Cilic should not obscure the scale of the achievement of Roger Federer, a man who had been written off as little as 12 months ago, who had endured a four-and-a-half-year grand-slam drought, who had taken off six months last season as he came to terms with an injury to a knee. 

 A man whose artistic interpretation of the game seemed to have become increasingly obsolete in an era characterised by power, muscularity and stamina. A man who has moved into the second half of the fourth decade of life, a time when many players are wondering how they will cope with the ironies of retirement. A man whose rivals are, we should never forget, among the finest tennis players to have drawn breath.

Yet, as Andy Murray and, in particular, Novak Djokovic have faltered, and despite the renaissance of Rafael Nadal, Federer has become, unexpectedly, impossibly, the dominant force in the game once more.Where he became the first man to capture the title without dropping a set since Bjorn Borg in 1976, following a stunning victory at the Australian Open in January, testifies to a player of ineffable ability but also of mental toughness perhaps unequalled in the modern sporting age. 

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 The Croat is a fine player with a devastating serve that took him to the US Open title in 2014, but up against an athlete with such myriad qualities as the Swiss, a player revelling in the reignition of his genius in these twilight years, he was never likely to endanger a victory that takes Federer to 19 grand-slam titles, four more than his nearest rival in tennis (Nadal), and one clear of Jack Nicklaus, that titan of longevity and nerve, whose feats in golf will not, one imagines, be equalled for decades. 

 Federer plays tennis in a different language. It is a language that requires no obvious translation, for it is understood regardless of cultural background, with Federer admired as much in Asia and South America as in Europe and the United States. 

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 One dearly hopes that he will continue for a few more years, articulating the language of tennis with his distinctive grammar, inspiring a new generation of fans, and now seeking out a scarcely credible 20th major title.He is a truly unique sportsman, a champion for the ages.