ROGER FEDERER (3)

Roger Federer provided yet another reason to be considered the best male tennis player of all time, when he beat Andy Murray in 4 sets in the Wimbledon final yesterday. Records tumbled for Federer during the course of the tournament's two weeks. An increase in his own record of Grand Slam victories from 16 to 17; the first man to reach 8 Wimbledon finals; matching the record of 7 Wimbledon victories held by Pete Sampras and William Renshaw; and beating Jimmy Connors' record of 31 Grand Slam semi-finals. Most impressively, his victory takes him back up to number one in the world, meaning that he will shortly beat Pete Sampras' record for the most weeks in the number one position. And all achieved a month shy of his 31st birthday, in what is undoubtedly a young man's game.

He had some luck, not least when great rival Rafael Nadal was unceremonioulsy dumped out of the tournament in the second round by the player ranked 100th in the world, in what was one of the great upsets of all time. He also had the good fortune, because of the rain, to play many of his matches under the new centre court roof, where the still air helps his super-accurate serve. But he also had to make his own, comprehensively defeating the current world number one and defending champion Novak Djokovic in the semi-final and then Murray, the great hope of the British, in the final. The match was close for the first two sets; but in the last two, Federer was in a different class. One relevant statistic is that he hit 62 winners in the final, more than anybody else in any match during the whole tournament. If he hadn't also hit an uncharacteristically large number of unforced errors, then Murray would have been thrashed instead of beaten.

And what of Murray, who has now appeared in four Grand Slam finals and lost all four, three of them to Federer? With Nadal's early exit and Djokovic's defeat in the other half of the draw, Murray only had to beat "the old man" to become the first Brit to take the title since 1936 (being the first in the final since 1938 laid one record to rest, but the country wanted more). Particularly at the start, he probably played the best tennis he has ever done; but in the end, it was not enough.

Sport can be cruel. In another age, Murray would probably have won many Grand Slam titles. But he has had the misfortune to play at the same time as Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. They all keep saying that Murray will win one at some point; after all, his new coach Ivan Lendl also lost his first four Grand Slam finals, was two sets to love down against John McEnroe in the French Open in his fifth, yet came back to win that and seven more. Even so, I still have my doubts. He is already 25, the same age as Djokovic and less than a year younger than Nadal. Yet they have already won 5 and 11 Grand Slam titles respectively, they are still ranked above him, and they are still playing.

As is Federer. He doesn't dominate the game as he did in 2003-5, but he is still a brilliant player. Basically, when the new generation came along, he had to go back to the drawing board and reinvent himself. It is the mark of a really great champion that he has managed to do that.

Walter Blotscher