Wimbledon, England — He didn’t fall to his knees or on his back this time, didn’t bellow or begin to sob in his chair. For Roger Federer, the emotion most abundant after his eighth Grand Slam title seemed to be relief.

At long last, Federer had beaten his most vexing opponent, a relentless lefty from Spain whose forehand and heart never quit, 6–0, 7–6(5), 6–7(2), 6–3. When Rafael Nadal’s final backhand sliced wide, Federer threw up his arms and threw back his head, and barely made a sound. He had ended a stretch that saw him lose seven of eight meetings with Nadal and four this year — his only four losses — including the French Open final. The 20-year-old from Mallorca had come a long way on grass, but not far enough to take the sport’s most prestigious title from the defending champion.

The importance of this contest was not lost on the world no. 1, and it had nothing to do with the $1.2 million winner’s check. Had Nadal won the French Open and Wimbledon back-to-back, a feat last accomplished by Bjorn Borg in 1980, he would have been considered, rightly, the best player in the world, no matter what the rankings might have said.

“I’m very well aware of how important this match was for me,” Federer said after arriving at his press conference in jeans, a collared shirt, blue sweater, and his now trademark cream blazer. “If I lose, obviously it’s a hard blow for me.”

It made the victory that much more gratifying. He lost only one set for the tournament, and has now won a record 48 straight grass-court matches. As he sat waiting for a television interview, he looked up at the champion’s board, where his name will be written for a fourth time, the same number as Rod Laver. Pete Sampras and Willie Renshaw won seven, and Borg five. Federer said he was not so certain that he would move any closer to those legends when this tournament began, especially considering his difficult draw.

“These [doubts] go through your head,” he said. “And I didn’t think once, you know, that maybe I hold the trophy again.”

Federer’s performance on court was as muted and subtle as his celebration. He pumped his fist perhaps twice, and gave himself an encouraging “Come on!” once. Exhales, rather than exaltations, were the order of the day.

So many times in Grand Slam tournaments and Grand Slam finals, the 24-year-old Swiss finds this otherworldly place that no tennis player seems able to reach. His feet move more quickly than usual, his anticipation goes from excellent to uncanny, and every ball seems to find a line or a corner.The winners come in flurries — a few backhands, a few volleys, and forehands by the dozen. Jonas Bjorkman saw this Federer in the semifinal, and Mario Ancic before that. Lleyton Hewitt, who lost two sets at love to Federer in the 2004 U.S. Open final, remembers the maestro well, as does Andy Roddick, twice Federer’s foil at Wimbledon.

Yesterday, though, Federer could not quite scale those heights. There were glimpses of his fabulous side, especially in the middle of the fourth set, when he cranked up his forehand and forced Nadal into errors or short returns. He made a few deft volleys too, none better than a delicate backhand angle that gave him a 0–30 lead at 1–4 in the final set.

Yet one might have expected Federer to attack as he did in Rome earlier this year, when he earned two match points against Nadal on clay. Instead, he was content to play steady and vary the pace of his shots.His forehand lacked that explosive burst that usually sends it past his lunging opponents. And it was Nadal who played with daring, hitting harder and flatter than he normally does and moving to the net at times (he hit the two best volleys of the match).

Federer played a fine first set, winning with ease as Nadal made several uncharacteristic errors. Federer perplexed him with slice backhands that glided along the grass and a few welltimed forehand winners.

“I don’t see very well the strategy of the game, no, because he was playing different with his slice,” Nadal said. “And after he change the rhythm.”

It was not the match Nadal had expected.The day before the final, at the flat up the road from the All England Club where he stays, Nadal sat hunched over against the wall in his sparsely furnished living room, churning his fingers through his thigh muscles and waving his hands while he tried to speak English.Close up, the 6-foot-1, 188-pound Spaniard looked smaller, more like a “hyperactive” teenager, as he put it, than the cartoon character with bulging biceps he resembles on television. Grass or clay, Wimbledon or the French Open, Nadal said he expected to play Federer close.

“I always fight. If I lose, I lose, but I always fight,” Nadal said. “I gonna play the final of Wimbledon. I don’t want to lose. I know that. He has more pression [pressure] than me, no?”

As the second set began yesterday, a bit of luck helped Nadal find his way back into the match. In the opening game, with Federer serving at 40–30, the champion approached on a good forehand to the opposite court. Nadal whipped a forehand high and cross court, and Federer decided to let it fly. Nadal’s heavy topspin, the cause of so many high-bouncing balls in Paris, had found a way to beat Federer on grass, as the ball dropped on the sideline for a winner. After a backhand passing shot and a badly mistimed Federer forehand, Nadal had his break.

Federer said the match turned when Nadal failed to maintain that advantage late in the set, when he served at 5–4. He made two errors on low-bouncing backhand slices from Federer, and then double faulted after over-hitting his first serve (126 mph, and long by five feet). Another forehand error and Federer had pulled even. In the tiebreaker, the champion played a running forehand squash shot (swinging high to low rather than low to high) and made only one error.

Nadal outplayed Federer in the second set, played flawless in the third set, and sparkled in the tiebreaker, hitting a forehand return winner and playing a serve-and-volley point for a 6–2 lead. But he made a costly mistake at the net in the final set, slapping a high volley to the back wall on break point to fall behind 3–1. Federer the marvelous made another cameo two games later, drilling two forehands and a volley for a second break.

And while Federer faltered on his first chance to serve out the match, he didn’t lose a point on his second try.Was the final more difficult than he had expected? Yes, he said, and that was a testament to Nadal, a man of boundless energy and ambition. Nadal no doubt will arrive in the United States this summer hungry for a hard-court title, and so will Federer.The real rivalry has begun.

tperrotta@nysun.com