Federer

Roger Federer brought the curtain down on his illustrious career in an emotion-packed Friday night session at London's O2 Arena, finishing his final match ...

Three times he and Nadal were two points from victory – at 5-4 and 6-5 in the second set and 8-8 in the match tiebreak – and they moved to within a point of victory at 9-8. “It does feel like a celebration,” he told the crowd, “it’s what I wanted it to be, so thank you. The match itself was the perfect way for Federer to go out. In the third game he moved for a forehand down the line and threaded it through the tiny gap between the net post and the net. It ended two-and-a-quarter hours later with Sock wrong-footing Nadal with a forehand up the alley, but from then on the American pair took a back seat as the show belonged to Federer. But Friday’s story was all about Federer and the final chapter of a career that signs him off him as one of the greatest athletes in the history of sport, not just tennis.