After his epic five-set battle, Roger Federer was due in the press interview room at 9.55pm, with the newly minted champion Rafael Nadal next up at 10.20pm. Perhaps to make sure that he would only have to do the 10-minute minimum as the world waited for him to dissect his defeat, the beaten finalist eventually appeared, red-eyed and disconsolate, at 10.10pm on the dot. What followed was as much of a roller-coaster as the match itself.

"I thought we both played well," he said, before beginning a litany of lethargically raised eyebrows and shrugged shoulders. "The rain didn’t help me that much – I didn’t win the match, did I? I was struggling with the wind a little bit and the light was tough but that was not an excuse. This is probably the hardest loss of my career so far."

Once the conference moved into French, Federer suddenly became decidedly more blunt and to the point. "I couldn’t see who I was playing against by the end," he said with another shrug which he used as punctuation to make it quite clear that he had no intention of giving a more detailed answer.

When asked whether it was a consolation that it was a great player like Nadal who had put an end to his 65-match winning streak, Federer’s humour became even darker. "No. Zero consolation. I didn’t learn anything new from today – certainly not about how to play him on grass. This really hurts… Losing Paris for me was nothing, losing here is a disaster." No more, no less.

The straw that broke the camel’s back came when he was quizzed about the vast haul of points he will have to defend in the coming tournaments – far more than Nadal – if he is to remain number one in the rankings. "Write what you want," he glowered after a sigh, a pause and a shrug. "I’m going to try to win at the Olympics and the US Open and have a good end to the season. That’s it."

Though the Swiss German media tried to perk his spirits up by asking him whether he would take some holidays prior to beginning the second half of the hard-court season, there was no consoling Roger. The bigger they come, the harder they fall, and there had been none bigger than Federer here at Wimbledon.

失败绝对是苦楚的 看看球王的黯然神伤 不会再有任何灾难了 08赛季 他已经历了很多 不会再有什么是比现在更艰难的时刻了

永远支持罗杰费德勒 这位优雅的绅士 终有一天会归来