ESPN Wimbledon 2008

WIMBLEDON, England -- A fall to the ground, camera flashes, a Spanish flag draped around his shoulders, a visit to the player's box to hug his family followed by a trot across the roof of the commentary boxes to greet Spain's Prince Felipe of Asturias and Princess Letizia of Asturias.

Rafael Nadal was a Wimbledon champion. The first Spanish man since Manuel Santana in 1966 to win Wimbledon, universally considered the most prestigious prize in tennis.

But despite becoming only the third man in Open era history, behind Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg, to win back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon trophies, Nadal virtually bowed to the man he just beat 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7: Roger Federer.

"He's still the No. 1," Nadal told Sue Barker, the on-court emcee. "He's still the best. He's still five-time champion here. Right now I have one, so for me it's very, very important day."

Those comments by Nadal show him to be the kind of guy whose picture could easily be pasted next to the word "classy" in the dictionary.

But was he really speaking the truth?

The computer rankings might show Federer at the top of the tennis chart, but how can a player who hasn't won one of the three Grand Slam titles this year be considered better than a guy who has already won two?

Federer knew the answer: If the rankings solely relied on performance within a particular season, he would not make the grade in 2008, even taking into account that he suffered from mononucleosis at the beginning of the year. Sure, he won two titles at Estoril and Halle. But no offense to those tournaments, for a guy of Federer's caliber, they come across as the booby prizes. This is especially true considering his closest rival, Nadal, has beaten him in the French Open and Wimbledon finals and also won his first grass-court title at Queen's Club sandwiched in between those two giants.

Wimbledon's Centre Court was Federer's house, and grass has been his mainstay. But with the five-set loss to Nadal, Federer's winning streak on grass ended at 65.

Nadal's victory also rubbed into Federer's already sore wound that the Spaniard continues to have his number, and has now proven he can be in control on whatever surface they play on. Nadal holds a 12-6 record against Federer -- he's beaten him nine times on clay, including the past three years in the French Open final, twice on hard courts and now on grass.

After a fortnight of picture-perfect conditions, the weather backdrop for the Wimbledon final on Sunday matched the pending scenario for Federer: dreary, dank, wet and eventually dark.

This was supposed to be Federer's occasion, a big moment in the history of the game. He was going to further substantiate his already sterling résumé by successfully surpassing the record he shares with Borg by capturing his sixth consecutive Wimbledon title.

The battle barely came to a close as the longest match in the history of Wimbledon finals -- 4 hours, 48 minutes to be exact -- and everyone was raving. Fans offered continuous applause of the standing ovation kind for both competitors. The media room was abuzz about the instant classic they just witnessed. The venerable journalist Bud Collins stated, rather emphatically, that in his 41 years at Wimbledon, there hadn't been a better show he's seen.

And through it all, Federer did his best to keep up a brave front, but in small ways he let his disappointment seep through. How could it not?

"Probably later on in life, you know, I'll go, 'That was a great match,'" Federer said. "But right now it's not much of a -- how do you say -- a feel-good thing, or a positive thing to end this match. … I'm happy we lived up to the expectations. I'm happy the way I fought. That's all I could really do."

Federer understood that Nadal on the day was the better competitor. He took Federer out of his own game, forcing the world No. 1 into continuous brutal battles off the ground. Federer needed to dictate the points and keep them shorter, but that was impossible when Nadal kept him pinned to the baseline. When Federer can only take advantage of one of 13 break-point opportunities in a match, something is not going right.

At the start of the year, many believed it was going to be Federer's year with destiny -- the season he would equal or even surpass Pete Sampras' 14 Grand Slam titles. But that will not be his fate now, at least not in 2008 -- winning Wimbledon was a necessity along with taking a fifth consecutive U.S. Open title to make that magic happen.

Now as the year begins to fade away, there are still three desirable prizes remaining: the Olympics, U.S. Open and year-end Tennis Masters Cup.

Certainly winning one or all of those three could help salvage Federer's year. But even if that would come to pass, Federer knows this year will not be one for the record books. Instead, it's likely to be a year he'll prefer to forget. And the loss to Nadal at Wimbledon will always hurt, even once he can step back and see that he was an important ingredient in what is likely to always be remembered as one of the greatest matches ever played.

"Probably, my hardest loss, by far. I mean, it's not much harder than right now," were Federer's parting words as he walked away disappointed from the place that used to be his place.

Sandra Harwitt is a freelance tennis writer for ESPN.com.