He, therefore, entered Wimbledon for the first time without having played a warm-up grass-court tournament. Federer, nevertheless, reached the finals of Wimbledon for the fifth time, only dropping one set. The final was a rematch of 2006 as Federer again faced his nemesis Rafael Nadal. The final would prove to be an epic, delivering the first five set final at Wimbledon since 2001. Federer won the first set in a tight tiebreaker which he won 9–7. Nadal responded in the second and took it 6–4, leveling the match at one set apiece. A pivotal third set was decided by another tiebreaker which Federer claimed 7–3. After the first three sets Federer was only one set away from his fifth consecutive Wimbledon championship. Nadal, however, refused to go down quietly and took the fourth set decisively by a score of 6–2. As they entered the ultimate fifth set both players knew the value of a single break. Federer faced two early fifth set crises when he found himself down double break point in the third and fifth games. Federer, however, saved all four break points to take a 3–2 lead. In the sixth game Federer finally broke the Nadal serve and closed out the championship 6–2 in the final set. This match marked the first time in Federer's career that he was pushed to a fifth set in the finals of a Slam and remained his only five set final victory at a major until 2009 Wimbledon. With this victory Federer tied Björn Borg's open-era men's record of five consecutive Wimbledon titles. He also tied Rod Laver and Björn Borg with 11 Grand Slam titles, moving into third place all-time.
