Regardless of who won today’s men’s singles final at Wimbledon, history would be made.

For #2 seed Raphael Nadal, he was looking to become the first man in 27 years to win both the French and Wimbledon in the same year. The last time was in 1980 when Bjorn Borg did it.

For #1 Roger Federer, he was trying to win his fifth straight Wimbledon, which also had not been done since 1980. That year, the very same Bjorn Borg’s Wimbledon win over John McEnroe was his fifth straight.

These two had already made history at last year’s French and Wimbledon. In the Open era, never had two players played in the final at the French and then done so again at Wimbledon a few weeks later. Nadal and Federer did that last year. And again this year.

As the telecast on NBC began, they said that the Nadal-Federer rivalry was still waiting for the first “road win.” As I already mentioned, Federer has owned Nadal and the world on grass, having won the previous four titles at Wimbledon, including a win over Nadal last year. And, Nadal has owned Federer and the world on clay, having won three straight French titles, the last two over Federer.

However, today would not be the day for a “road win.” Federer would be the history maker today, winning his fifth consecutive title on Centre Court. Nadal, though, put up a great fight, pushing the champion to five sets before losing. In his post-match comments, Federer was asked about Nadal’s play. Federer stated that he was happy for every title he gets now, because he knows Nadal will eventually be taking them all. That very well may be true. Here’s hoping for a U.S. Open final in September between these two. Maybe a third grand slam final will decide if Roger is still the king, or if Nadal is ready to dethrone him.

Let me say this, though - these two guys are not only the two best tennis players on the men’s tour (by far), but they are also two very nice guys, both extremely gracious in both winning and losing. It’s probably true that the rivalry between the two is made into more than it really is by the media (that’s what they do - they overdo), but still they’re the two best and they’re usually standing at the end of the slams to decide who gets the prize. And that’s why it’s both uncommon and refreshing to see their attitudes towards each other when they play on the sport’s biggest stages.

One last note - while there’s no doubt the women’s game has been better over the last 10 years or so, there’s nothing better anywhere in tennis right now than watching these two in a grand slam final. Today’s match was tennis at it’s finest.

A few other Wimbledon notes…

Venus Williams won the women’s title, her fourth in eight years. That puts her among players who have won at least four Wimbledon titles - Steffi Graf (7), Martina Navratilova (9), and Billie Jean King (6). That’s not bad company at all.

Probably the best women’s match I watched was the Justine Henin-Serena Williams match in the quarterfinals. Henin won in three sets, but it was unclear if Williams was really 100% after a couple of injuries had slowed her down. Still, great match.

Other highlights on the men’s side were a couple of great 5-set matches in the quarterfinals on Friday. First, Novak Djokovic knocked out Marcos Baghdatis in five in an outstanding match. I didn’t remember seeing the 20-year-old Djokovic play before, but having watched a couple of his matches this week, he’s clearly going to be a force to be reckoned with in the coming year as well. I’ve enjoyed several matches involving Baghdatis in the last year or two, and love watching him play. I now feel the same about Djokovic, and I look forward to seeing more of him as well.

The other was a great match in the end, although it was also a major fold by Andy Roddick. Up two sets and a break, Roddick eventually fell to Richard Gasquet in the fifth set. Roddick said he was not yet looking ahead to the next round where Federer awaited the winner, but one has to wonder what caused him to lose his focus in the third. After that, Gasquet caught fire and just outplayed Roddick the remainder of the match. Gasquet has a great backhand and he used it to hit some tremendous winners. It was really a blast to watch.

Overall, this was a pretty good year at Wimbledon, despite all of the ridiculous rain delays during the middle days of the tournament. I was glad to have the opportunity to see a lot of it near the end. Maybe I need to take off for the final days of Wimbledon every year. :)