No tennis fan, regardless of allegiance, will forget the Wimbledon epic of 2008. The final between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal was one of the greatest tennis matches in the sport’s illustrious history, with Federer saving two championship points in the fourth set tiebreak but eventually losing the match 6–4, 6–4, 6–7(5), 6–7(8), 9–7. Then the constitutional English rain poured and the match was thwarted, with proceedings being delayed until it was resumed in near darkness.

The clash itself lasted four hours and 48 minutes of play, making it the longest men’s final in Wimbledon’s recorded history, with the actual event taking seven hours, 15 minutes. Nadal won what is arguably the most precious Gram Slam of them all that day, and that victory ended Federer’s 65 match-winning streak on grass. Following the titanic showdown, John McEnroe described the match as "the greatest match I’ve ever seen". And after Nadal surpassed him as World No. 1 later in the year, Federer stated that his main goal would be to regain the Wimbledon title rather than the top spot.

Wimbledon 2009 commences on June 22, and two of the main culprits are once again expected to be Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. In the case of the Swiss heavyweight, his quest to surpass Pete Sampras and win a 15th Grand Slam could be accomplished, given recent problems around Nadal whose knee injuries could render him unable to defend his Wimbledon title or impair his performance if he does.

Aware of his arch rival’s physical handicap, Federer has decided to boost his chances of winning Wimbledon by choosing not to defend his Gerry Weber Open title, withdrawing from the competition altogether, citing exhaustion after his historic French Open triumph. He normally uses the Halle grass-court event to prepare for Wimbledon, but this time around he apparently has reckoned that he can prepare otherwise for the showdown, and save some precious energy, which he will inevitably have to tap into during the tournament.

Meanwhile, the Spaniard announced on June 9 that he will try everything possible to ensure that he will at least participate at Wimbledon. He recently failed in his bid to become the first man to win five French Open titles, losing to Sweden’s Robin Soderling in the fourth round of this year’s Roland Garros. However, current world number one Rafael Nadal says he will give "200 per cent" to be fit in time to defend his Wimbledon title, and prevent Roger Federer from winning his 15th Grand Slam which would effectively make the Swiss player the greatest tennis player of all time. Add to that the possibility that Andy Murray could make a strong attempt on the summit himself and Wimbledon 2009 could go down in tennis folklore as one of the greatest.