Arnold Schwarzenegger's Terminator helped Rafael Nadal to classic 2008 Wimbledon final against Roger

June 2024 · 3 minute read

It's been nearly 15 years since Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer produced one of the greatest tennis matches of all time.

The 2008 Wimbledon Men's singles final saw two of the sport's giants compete in an epic clash in south-west London.

Federer was the reigning champion and searching his sixth title in the competition, with Nadal eyeing his first.

A fifth set was required to determine the champion and an enthralling tiebreak set up a dramatic finish in a match that was affected by weather and completed in near darkness.

Nadal won on the 16th point, collapsing to the ground in emotion as he realised he had finally won Wimbledon.

There is no doubt his quality played a huge role in such success, but it appears The Terminator offered a source of inspiration along the way.

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Regarded as Hollywood classic, the 1984 sci-fi action movie stars Arnold Schwarzenegger as a time-travelling cyborg assassin.

He is tasked to kill Sarah Connors, a waitress whose unborn son is set to save the world from the threat of a post-apocalyptic AI known as Skynet.

It caught the eye of Nadal, so much so that he watched it as part of his warm-up for his third round match against Nicolas Kiefer.

Speaking on such preparations, he said: "Carlos Moya put it in my bag in Paris one day when we were shopping. He told me I had to watch it. A classic."

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Schwarzenegger and co. proved to be influential for Nadal as he went on to beat Kiefer in straight sets.

Mikhail Youzhny was his last opponent before the finals, but he too was defeated by the Spaniard in just three sets.

Wimbledon glory was now within touching distance for Nadal and yet again, he proved his class in straight set victories en route to the final.

He beat Andy Murray in the quarter-finals and Rainer Schuttler in the semis, with Federer his opponent the showdown for the third consecutive year.

Defeats in the 2006 and 2007 finals would likely have given him the motivation to make it third time lucky, with 2008 finally proving to be his year.

Rain delayed the start of a match that was supposed to commence at 2:00pm, a sign of the drama to come.

Nadal was cruising as he held a two-set lead over Federer but the third set witnessed a delay of around 80 minutes for weather once again.

Federer fought hard to seal a comeback in the fourth set and did so in what is dubbed as one of the greatest tiebreaks of all time - a series of forehands and backhands from both stars that were worthy of winning the title alone.

Centre Court only had its roof installed the following year, an addition that was desperately needed as rain halted play for a second time with night time beginning to drawn in.

There was concern that the match would have to be played the next day but finally at 9:15pm, Nadal emerged victorious at Wimbledon.

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It proved to be one of his hugely impressive 22 Grand Slam victories in one of tennis' most illustrious careers.

Nadal is not at the 2023 edition but will return next year or, as Arnie might say: "I'll be back."

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