There’s a few things in life that are just a given. The grass is green, the sky is blue, and if Sportable is talking about tennis, it involves Roger Federer, the most dominant athlete in the world. The 25 year old sensation took another step towards the title of “best ever,” defeating his nemesis Rafael Nadal to win Wimbledon for a 5th straight time. It was the first time Federer had been pushed to five sets in a major final.

“I win my share. He wins his. We’ve been at the top for over 100 weeks together. It is like building up to one of maybe the great rivalries,” Federer said. “We sometimes haven’t lived up to the expectations in the past … but you can’t always play five-set thrillers, you know. I’m happy it happened today. I left as the winner. Perfect.”

Because I don’t consider 19th century sports records to be very legitimate, it cuts down the number of challengers Federer has when compared to the all-time greats. With the win, he joined Bjorn Borg as the only player in the last 100 years to win Wimbledon five consecutive times. This tough win over Nadal gives him 11 titles in the last 17 major tournaments. Considering Pete Sampras won his last major at the age of 31, it looks like Federer has plenty of years left to topple Pete’s record of 14.

Unlike their previous meetings at the French Open and Wimbledon, this match turned out to be a thriller. There wasn’t much doubt about the last two finals of the French and last year’s Wimbledon. But this one had some serious drama. For tennis’ sake, let’s hope these two can continue their rivalry for years to come. If Federer wins the U.S. Open next month in New York, he’ll start off 2008 just two majors shy of equaling Sampras’ record. Not bad for a 25 year old.