Only twice in 133 Wimbledons have defending champions suffered a first-round exit. But Roger Federer came so close to sharing that ignominy at the hands of the little-known Alejandro Falla today that doubts about his rarely questioned dominance here are starting to grow.
That was unthinkable – blasphemous even – no more than a day ago but not any more.
The leaders among the chasing pack will fancy their chances of unseating the man who owns six Wimbledon titles and had every expectation of going past Pete Sampras's tally of seven, maybe even getting to double figures if his legs and ambition held out.
Rafael Nadal, who beat him on clay in Madrid this year (and bested him here in 2008 in one of the truly memorable finals), looms most ominously. Lleyton Hewitt, who defeated him on grass in Halle the weekend before last, will have hope. Robin Soderling, who blasted Federer off the clay at Roland Garros, will look at yesterday's match and wonder if he can do it again.
Andy Murray, too. That is how significant this performance was. On both sides of the draw the wolves are baring their fangs.
For at least an hour and a half on Centre Court yesterday, the finest player ever to grace a grass court looked as if he might join Manuel Santana (loser to Charlie Pasarell in 1967) and Hewitt (blasted out by Ivo Karlovic's thunderous serve seven years ago) as title-holders to leave town at the first time of asking.
Federer came through 5-7, 4-6, 7-6, 6-4, 6-0 in three hours and 18 minutes but could so easily have lost the match when Falla, a struggling Colombian clay-courter ranked 60th in the world, had him by the throat at 4-4 in the third, three break points in the bag with history his to be made.
Falla, who had played with wit and courage until that point, destroying Federer's backhand with all the subtlety of a street mugger, went to pieces in the presence of the great man. Federer held serve and blitzed Falla in the tie-break.
From that point on it was pretty much business as usual. He dropped serve at the start of the fourth but gradually gathered his composure and, by the end of the fifth, he had his man on the ropes, ragged and dispirited. He was hitting crisply again, moving commandingly at the net and floating across the baseline like the balletic wizard he is.
Federer at the start, though, was unrecognizable from Federer at the finish. It was as if he had sleep-walked into his favourite tournament, comfortable in the assumption that someone he had put away twice in the past month would provide no more than a warm-up for tougher challengers to come.
How wrong can a giant of the game be?
He started as if desperate to get the match out of the way so he could watch Switzerland and Chile in the World Cup, a match due to start two hours later. In that time, however, he peppered the net with a welter of wobbly ground strokes, mostly off the backhand, and volleyed unconvincingly.
At 5-5 in the first, the umpire interrupted Federer mid-serve when a ball-boy moved behind his arm; he double-faulted and went on to drop serve – although he later struggled to recall the distraction.
Federer hit a forehand wide to hand the set to Falla, who continued to work him over in the second set. Falla broke him in the seventh game and held his nerve to close it out, although he was now in a bit of a dogfight.
When he failed to nail his man in the 11th game of the third set, Falla knew, deep down, his moment had passed. It was a sad sight, the denouement.
The grafting left-hander can never have played a better match, nor been so crushed by coming so close to what even he must have imagined was beyond him. His biggest achievement in the game to date was reaching a semi-final in Lyons three years ago.
This was Falla's third contest in a row against Federer. He lost in straight sets in Paris and Halle in the past month. Six years ago Federer brushed him away with ease here in the first round in 55 minutes on Court One. Nobody thought today's encounter would be any different.
Had Federer lost, we would today be discussing the biggest upset in tennis history, no question. It would have been a shock bigger than that inflicted on Sampras here in 2001 by Federer's compatriot George Basti, who was ranked 145 in the world at the time and was hardly heard of again.
Thereafter Sampras went into gradual decline before retiring from the game in 2003 and handing over the mantle of the world's premier grass-court player to Federer. Nobody is suggesting Federer has reached that tipping point but he needs to turn his game around quickly to hold on to his title and his aura.
Federer is almost exactly 10 years younger than Sampras. It is not inconceivable that he will soon reach the same conclusion the American did once he became vulnerable to the attacks of lesser players.
Fatherhood and a quiet life might suddenly look more attractive than putting his golden reputation on the line – because he knows those circling wolves will not go away and lately they have been snapping at his heels with worrying regularity.
guardian.co.uk
Ok, I'm all for a little bit of drama on the first day of Wimbledon and all, but this was overkill!.
Now the rumor mill is all abuzz once again that Roger has lost his touch. Every time the man has a little hic up the pessimists come out in full force.
Let's wait and see how he does in his second round shall we?.
Note to Roger: a little less drama in your second round would be much appreciated.
Thank you, your devoted but emotionally exhausted fan.
In other news on the women's side of things where thankfully there was no drama to be had.
Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin comfortably moved on to their respective second round matches.
Kim seemed the more comfortable of the two winning her match 6-0 6-3. While Justine Henin won hers 6-4 6-3.
Though to be fair I did not see Justine play, on the count of being way too wrapped up in the Federer 5 setter.
If both women survive into the quarters we could have another clash of the Belgians.
If today is anything to go by something tells me we're in for a rocky unpredictable ride at this year's Wimbledon.
Goofing off as usual it's as if they never left *LOL*
