If the Williams sisters were to retire with Davenport as of this writing, the U.S. would have no women in the Top 40, and three players in the Top 100 (including the 30+ Jill Craybas, and Ashley Harkleroad who is pregnant). In other words, by the time the Williams retire, U.S. women’s tennis will virtually retire with them.

In sports, a measure of greatness is seeing just how a champion responds after getting hit. Well, Roger Federer got hit by Rafael Nadal in the French Open final, then five weeks later Nadal knocked him down in the Wimbledon final.

I tried to determine the toughest draws conquered at the respective events since the start of the 1988 season. The Australian Open did not have 1 draw that jumped out at me. The U.S. Open had several draws that stood out as quite difficult for the champion to navigate (1992, 1994, 1998, 2002). At any rate, these are the 4 draws I selected. Tell me and the rest of the Tennis-x readers what other draws were exceptionally deep and rough.

Well that was worth it, wasn’t. Rafael Nadal trumps Roger Federer 6-4, 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-7(1), 9-7 in an absolutely epic affair that will go down as one of the greatest matches ever.

Nadal serving again loses a baseline rally with a backhand error and almost slams his racquet to the ground. Now Federer has the momentum, evening the tiebreak with a forehand error after drawing Nadal wide. A big serve puts Federer up 6-5, then a protracted rally ends with Federer driving an attempted forehand winner wide. Lot of tension as the players trade sides at 6-6 with the crowd going into “Roger!” and “Rafa!” football chants.

“I can’t believe it’s five,” said Venus of her fifth Wimbledon title in seven finals, and unfailingly producing public relations on the difficulty of playing her sister. “When you play Serena Williams, five seems so far away.”

So you want another Roger Federer v. Rafael Nadal matchup? You got it. The two kings of tennis, Federer and Nadal meet again for the third straight time in a Wimbledon final. And in my mind this is the biggest match of their rivalry to date.

“The fact was that Rafa beat me so easily in Paris and went on to win at Queen’s,” Federer said. “He has been playing fantastically but don’t write me off too quickly because this is my part of the season, Wimbledon and the US Open…I don’t think it matters really a lot if I’m the favorite or not. I’m on an incredible winning streak on grass. First somebody has to be able to break that before we start talking differently.”

Nadal is not facing a radically depleted or wounded Roger Federer in the final. Federer won all 10 sets he played in picking up his 5th Halle title. Marcos Baghdatis and Nichols Kiefer stand out as solid wins in the quick transition from clay to grass. The Fed has also posted straight set wins over Robin Soderling, 2002 Wimbledon Champion Lleyton Hewitt, 2004 Wimbledon semifinalist Mario Ancic, and the enigmatic talent of Marat Safin. Nadal made a similarly quick and impressive transition from clay to grass, but he did so with the wind of victory at his back not the sting of humiliation. Federer has looked sharp at Halle and at Wimbledon.

Thanks NBC, and thanks Wimbledon. Thanks for again banding together to try and ruin the sport. If that’s your combined intent, your combined goal, you are really doing a helluva a great job!