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"I think I served really well all the tournament," said Nadal, who nullified three of the four break points he faced in the first game of the second set. "If you are not serving well it's impossible to win here. Serving really well gave me a lot of confidence on break points in this match."

Solidifying his status as the best big-match player in the sport, Nadal is 5-0 in his last five Grand Slam final. At the age of 24 he joins an esteemed class of champions  —  Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, Ivan Lendl, Fred Perry and Ken Rosewall  — with eight career Grand Slam championships

On championship point, the second-seeded Spaniard watched his forehand land cleanly, tossed his Babolat racquet aside and fell flat on his back while his coach and uncle, Uncle Toni Nadal, burst out of his seat in an explosion of emotion.

Then the champion arose and suddenly looked like a kid at a family's Fourth of July backyard barbecue as he dropped into a spontaneous somersault across the grass and got up grinning.

Leave it to Nadal, who plays with the intensity of a lit fuse, to provide fireworks after the final, too.

It was a revealing celebration to complete a sweetly satisfying reclamation project for the muscular Mallorcan.

A year ago, knee tendinitis knocked the reigning champion out of Wimbledon. Nadal, already disconsolate over the break-up of his parents' marriage, was forced to withdraw from Wimbledon then returned to tennis during the US Open Series struggling physically and feeling a bit like a pinata when he was pounded out of the US Open by Juan Martin del Potro in a semifinal sweep that left Nadal looking shell shocked.

Humiliated by going win less in last November's ATP World Tour Finals in London, Nadal returned to Spain to lead the nation to its second straight Davis Cup championship then resolved to rest and recharge for the 2010 season.

Questions concerning the state of his creaky knees and the physicality of of his scrambling style increased after Nadal retired from the Australian Open quarterfinal against Andy Murray. His title drought continued as Nadal found himself coming up short against veterans he had long surpassed in the rankings, Ivan Ljubicic (at Indian Wells) and Andy Roddick (in Miami) and that veneer of invulnerability Nadal once wore as easily as sunscreen was scraped away with each successive loss.

Returning rejuvenated to his beloved red clay in April, Nadal snapped an 11-month title drought, storming to his Open Era record sixth Monte Carlo championship. He's been rolling through the circuit ever since, posting a 31-1 record since bowing to Roddick in the Miami semifinals. Nadal has been such an oppressive presence on court, he's won 75 of the last 86 sets he's played.

Berdych was bidding to make tennis history as the first man to sweep the world's top three-ranked players to win a Grand Slam title. The 6'5" Czech produced periods of towering tennis in downsizing defending champion Roger Federer in the quarterfinals before sweeping third-ranked Novak Djokovic in the semifinals.

Contesting his first major final, Berdych's degree of difficulty spiked considerably with the presence of Nadal on the other side of the net.

"It's really tough to play this guy," Berdych said. "He's got some experience from the finals of Grand Slams. I wouldn't say I was nervous, I felt pretty good. He just took the chances that I
gave him and I think that was the biggest difference between me and him."



The 24-year-old Nadal won his second Wimbledon crown in the last three years before an appreciative crowd that included five-time Wimbledon winner Bjorn Borg, skier Lindsey Vonn, Rolling Stones guitar player Ronnie Wood.

Solidifying his status as one of the all-time greats, Nadal claimed his eighth Grand Slam championship in just his 25th major. Nadal holds the third best winning percentage
(32 percent) of majors won behind only Borg and rival Roger Federer.Borg played 28 career majors and won 11 of them, including six of his eight trips to Paris. Similarly, Nadal has maximized his major moments winning eight of the 10 Grand Slam finals he's contested.

Extending his Wimbledon win streak to 14 matches, Nadal is the first Spanish man to win Wimbledon twice. Manolo Santana took the title in 1966, defeating American Dennis Ralston in straight sets.

"For the Spanish players for the last 40 years it was very difficult to play here," Nadal said during the trophy presentation. "We are doing better right now. We are very satisfied for that."

There was a 28-year gap between Borg winning Roland Garros and Wimbledon back-to-back and Nadal repeating the feat in replicating the rare Paris-London double when he outdueled Federer to win the greatest match ever played, prevailing to win an epic five-setter in the 2008 final that ended with a flurry of flashes in near darkness.

This marks the third consecutive year a man has won the French Open and Wimbledon back to back.

Blotches of brown baseline turf, signs of grass worn away during the driest Wimbledon fortnight in eight decades, weren't quite the same shade of the salmon-colored Roland Garros stage Nadal rules with the slick slides of a speed skater, but the green color scheme actually brings out a broader spectrum of shots from the Spaniard.

Nadal often speaks in monotone, simple mono-syllabic bursts with little variation among his standard —  "I will no my best..."; "it will be a very touch match and I will have to play my best to have a chance....";  "we will see, no?" — a large part of that is Nadal is a genuinely humble champion who does not take the game or the opponent for granted and some of it is Nadal, in match mode, gives you nothing. 

In major finals, he narrows his focus, eradicates errors, erases mental mistakes and extinguishes hope out of opponents by covering the court so comprehensively he squeezes his side until it's as big as the bottom of an Easter basket.

At the same time, he's so much more than a pure athlete who combines the stamina of a world-class soccer player with the whirling, whipping uppercut forehand of a light heavyweight champion, with the sheer swagger of a matador seeing the blood in the bull. Nadal plays as if each match is a case to be cracked and he's the super sleuth putting together the clues to until the unfortunate soul standing on the either side is reduced to a competitive casualty, a chalk outline in the lawn created with every swing.



Berdych needed to be bold and hit big to have any serious shot of upsetting Nadal. Instead he was measured and methodical in his approach.

That wasn't going to get it done today.

"It was a great two weeks for me," said Berdych, who was a French Open semifinalist last month. "He was really strong today as he is showing the last few months he is really the champion and he just deserved to win today."

Swinging with a steady hand, Berdych showed no sign of nerves in the first six games of the match. Nadal worked his way through a 30-all stalemate in the fourth game as Berdych was beat by a bad hop and a swath of a slice serve that sideswiped through the lawn. Nadal held for 2-all.

A curling cross court pass from the Nadal forehand in the next game prompted a fan to yell "You're a genius, Rafa!". But Berdych kept pace with an ace to hold at a15 for 3-2.

In the seventh game, Nadal began to pick up the pace and put distance between himself and the first-time finalist.

Driving dipping topspin shots that torpedoed into the turf inches in front of the browned-out baseline, Nadal bewildered Berdych into a couple of mis-hit errors. On the ensuing point, Nadal thundered the most electrifying shot of the set.

Bursting to his left like a guy running for the last bar stool planted before the big screen of a sports bar televising Spain's World Cup match, Nadal was well off the doubles alley onto an actual patch of green grass when he lasered a forehand down the line that blew by Berdych and planted in the corner. That dancing drive gave Nadal triple break point. Two points later, Nadal, who had actively tried to run around every backhand he could, leaned into a knifing backhand return that rattled Berdych's racquet to break for 4-3.

Luring Berdych to over-hit with a series of sharp slice backhands of varying speed and depth,  Nadal earned double set point. Berdych saved the first with an ace wide.

Anticipating the wide second serve on the ad side, Nadal lifted a loopy topspin forehand down the line that kicked so high when it hit the court it looked like the ball hit a ramp. A stretched-out Berdych could only tap a desperate forehand into net. Nadal reeled off 16 of the last 21 points to take the first set in 34 minutes without facing a break point.