WIMBLEDON, England — An hour after winning his fifth straight Wimbledon title, Roger Federer, clad in his embroidered blazer and long pants, tossed tennis balls to a crowd standing beneath the walkway that connects Centre Court to the players’ lounge. Children cheered and jumped at their chance to catch a gift from the champion, and Federer grinned the grin of a man entirely at ease, perhaps just returned from an afternoon walk. One never would have guessed how close he had come to defeat in the best final of his career and his defining match at Wimbledon, a 7–6(7), 4–6, 7–6(3), 2–6, 6–2 victory over Rafael Nadal.

Federer, 25, now the holder of 11 Grand Slam titles, the same as Bjorn Borg and Rod Laver and three fewer than Pete Sampras, was out of his element all afternoon yesterday. For the first time during his reign at the All England Club, he wasn’t in control.

Nadal hit booming forehands and Federer gave chase. When the champion had the courage to rush the net, he watched balls whiz by. Nadal beat him in baseline rallies, too, and prevented him from attacking. The Spaniard held serve 22 consecutive times. Even Hawk-Eye, the instant replay system in use for the first time here, seemed to have it in for Federer: It saved Nadal one set point in the first set tiebreaker and sent a rattled Federer tumbling down two breaks of serve in the fourth set after it determined that a Nadal forehand had grazed the baseline. Federer, convinced the machine had it wrong, asked the chair umpire, Carlos Ramos, to turn the darn thing off. At that point, a fifth set — Federer’s first here since 2001, when as 19-year-old with no major titles he upset the defending champion, Sampras — was not in doubt. Whether Federer would prevail was far less certain. He hasn’t fared well in five sets in his career: he had a 9-10 record before yesterday. Nadal, the fittest man in tennis, wasn’t about to allow the wrap on his right knee, which he received in the fourth set, to interfere with his plans. He believed he could win this time, believed he could stop Federer from tying Borg’s record for consecutive Wimbledon titles while Borg looked on from the royal box. How close Nadal came. Twice in the fifth set Federer fell behind 15–40 on his serve. At 1–1 with Federer serving at 30–40, Nadal ran around his backhand and struck a forehand down the line, a shot he hits as well as anyone. He missed the line by an inch. Federer held and escaped the second 15–40 deficit, too. “I was nervous,” Federer said. “I was so happy when I came out of it because I knew that now he probably missed his chance.”

Safe for a moment, Federer played what must, at this point, be considered the best three games of his career. When Nadal hit a backhand volley with a little too much air under it, Federer roped a forehand down the line for a 0-30 lead. He hit another for 0–40 and then at 15–40, he carved a low, sharply angled slice backhand, his most wicked of the afternoon, cross court, setting up a forehand winner. He held the next game at love, serving three of his 24 aces, and broke Nadal again a game later with an overhead smash and then fell to the ground, champion once more.

Federer and Nadal had met 12 times before yesterday, but as is often the case with great tennis rivals, they had played only two matches that lived up to the highest of expectations. On clay in Rome last year, Federer had a title on his racket in the fifth set, but he missed a forehand and Nadal escaped in a fifth set tiebreaker. In Miami two years ago, Federer erased a two set deficit to win the Masters tournament in Miami. Other than that, these two phenomenal competitors had produced rather average performances and Nadal won most of them (8-4), including two French Open finals.

At the outset yesterday, their latest meeting looked like anything but a thriller. Federer hit his backhand beautifully from the first point, and Nadal lost his first service game and fell behind 3–0. Nadal lost the first set of last year’s final 6-0, and he seemed headed in the same direction.

What a difference in the 21-year-old Spaniard’s game in just a year. If ever you hear Pete Sampras lament, as he did this past week, about the demise of serve and volley tennis, remember the collection of passing shots Nadal hit in yesterday’s final: backhands down the line on a full run, dipping forehands cross court, and low line drives that Federer,

no novice at the net, could barely touch with the frame of his racket. On one ball seemingly out of Nadal’s reach, and past his body, Nadal zipped a forehand down the line with an abbreviated swing. Most memorable was the backhand cross court passing shot he hit while falling on what he often refers to as his “famous ass” as he broke Federer in the last game of the second set.

Federer’s serve, and his near flawless play in the two tiebreakers, saved him from defeat. For the match, he made 71% of his first serves and won 71% of those points. Nadal hit only one ace; otherwise, he bested Federer in every category. He hit more baseline winners, 30 to 20. He made two fewer winners at the net, 18 to Federer’s 20, but won 10% more of his points there (69% to 59%). He won 52% of points he finished while standing at the baseline, compared to 42% for Federer. He made fewer mistakes, too (24 unforced errors to 34 for Federer). All this after playing Monday through Sunday, seven straight days, because of the rain that soaked this tournament.

The numbers favored Nadal, but numbers don’t guarantee tennis titles. Federer played better at the most important moments, hit the better shots when his many streaks — now 54 consecutive matches on grass, 34 straight victories at Wimbledon, and five titles in a row — seemed about to end. Faced with his first test here, and with Borg, John McEnroe, Jimmy Connors, and Boris Becker, all Wimbledon champions, looking on, he proved again that he’s the best in the world, even if Nadal has moved much closer, and much more quickly, than anyone thought he might.

“He’s a fantastic player and he’s going to be around so much longer,” Federer said. “So I’m happy that I win them now before he takes them all.”