FanHouse Bjorn Borg

Who says Bjorn Borg doesn't have the right to flip flop?

He's as entitled as the next man and that is what the Swedish great is doing now by flipping his pick for this year's Wimbledon champion to the hottest player on the men's tennis scene, Roger Federer. A year ago, Borg correctly picked Rafael Nadal to win the 2008 Wimbledon title and that didn't sit well with Federer.

But this year, recognizing Federer is playing at a different level after having won the French Open, Borg is picking to the Swiss player to take it all in England.

What we're seeing at the French Open is the evolution of sport. Rafael Nadal, Modern Tennis Man, won his 29th consecutive match at Roland Garros Sunday, breaking Bjorn Borg's record of 28. Nadal is going for his fifth straight French title, which would break Borg's other unbreakable record.

And this isn't a baton handoff through history as much as a climb up the evolutionary ladder. Borg is Neanderthal man. Nadal is actually the same guy, modern epoch.

Roger Federer beat a more potent competitor that Rafael Nadal today to win his fifth straight Wimbledon title. He defeated the crushing weight of history. With Bjorn Borg, the only other man to win five Wimbledon championships in a row in attendance, Federer held his nerve and beat Nadal, 7-6 (9-7), 4-6, 7-6 (7-3), 2-6, 6-2.

With this win Federer, only 25, has now won 11 Grand slam titles, just three behind U.S. great. Pete Sampras. Nadal valiantly played the part of potential foil to Federer. But in the end, Nadal's lack of a consistently strong and varied serve, plus his inability to pressure Federer by attacking the Swiss player led to Raffa's ultimate demise.

After the match, each player complimented the other using the usual platitudes. However, Nadal must surely rue the fact that twice in the final set he had double-break point on Federer's serve and failed to convert any of the four break points. Federer must privately know that Nadal has shown an increasingly prevalent knack for coming up just short against the world's #1 on every other Grand Slam surface except clay. And even at the French Open, if Federer has Nadal in a pinch late in a match, Nadal's proclivity to hit his groundstrokes a little weaker, move his feet a little less, and serve a bit slower might even haunt him at the French Open.

While there are a slew of young players on the horizon who are unafraid of Nadal, all of them fear Federer. Look for Roger to end this Grand Slam season with a 12th trophy after the U.S. Open in September.

I just got done watching Novak Djokovic defeat Marcos Baghdatis in the Wimbledon quarterfinals. As you can tell by the picture above, the match went nearly five hours, lasted five sets, and it was an utter duel that tested endurance, strength, moxie, and heart. Only a day earlier, I saw Djokovic grind for four hours in a four-set 4th round win over Lleyton Hewitt. That same day, second seed Rafael Nadal, who has since reached the semifinals, rallied from down two sets to beat Mikhail Youzhny in five, 4-6, 3-6, 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. That was an incredible turn of events in which the better player won out in the long run. Putting all this together, plus many other years of watching both men's and women's tennis, and I'm led to conclude that the women are missing something. They are missing the magic that the men put on display at each Grand Slam event. They are missing five-set matches.

When you think of some of the greatest matches of all-time, what do you think of? You're all but guaranteed to see the 1980 Wimbledon final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe on everyone's list. Why? Not only did the match give Borg his fifth straight Wimbledon singles title, but it also went five sets, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, 6-7, 8-6, with the 4th going 19-17 in a tiebreaker. The 1975 US Open semis between Guillermo Vilas and Manuel Orantes would have to make the list. Orantes rallied from down two sets and 0-5 in the fourth set -- one game away from losing, to win in five sets. The 1989 French Open Final between Michael Chang and Ivan Lendl was another legendary match. Down two sets to none, Change fought back, and eventually won it in five sets -- serving underhand in the fifth because of injury.