A year ago, save for a couple of hours, we asked the question could sport get any better? Could tennis get any crueller? Could Wimbledon ever have a men’s singles final to compare with the brilliance of 2008?

Perhaps now, after this gargantuan struggle that featured more games than any other final in grand-slam history, we can have a better perspective on these three issues that will debated at length by everyone who cares for the sport or simply dips into tennis for the Wimbledon fortnight.

What more could anyone ask for a finale? Records galore being broken, a gathering of legends, a contest brimful of aggression, subtlety and mutual respect across the net, a glorious sunny afternoon and early evening, unlike last year uninterrupted by rain. The roof was of course there if required but praise the Lord it was not needed. One piece of history was sufficient, we did not need another with the first Wimbledon final to be completed under cover and floodlights.

Roger Federer must now be heralded as indisputably the greatest of all time. Most accepted the fact after he completed his set of majors at the French Open a month ago but now with 15 grand-slam titles to his name, he has made any conjecture on the subject irrelevant. Yes, Rod Laver did win the complete grand slam twice, but each time he did it, three of the events were played on his favoured grass. Yes, Pete Sampras won Wimbledon seven times but surely Federer is up to equalling that feat.

Now Federer has emulated both Bjorn Borg and Rafael Nadal in modern times, in wiping the clay of Roland Garros off his shoes and then proving himself unbeatable on grass. Taking back-to-back French Open and Wimbledon titles must be one of the most demanding challenges in the entire world of sport.

And to do it in this fashion was simply spellbinding. Never before has there been a scoreline in a Wimbledon final that has got anywhere close to reading 5-7,7-6,7-6,3-6,16-14. Never before have 77 games been played in a final anywhere (the previous record was set in Australia in 1927 when Gerald Patterson beat John Hawkes in 71 games). To put things into perspective last year’s legendary final between Nadal and Federer extended to only 62 games.

How refreshing therefore to see two players get on with the job in hand rather than dilly-dally by bouncing the ball a ridiculous amount of time before serving, stalling between points and forever fiddling with their underpants. Federer and the lamentably unfortunate Andy Roddick just went at it from start to finish and the standing ovation given to the valiant loser has never been more justified.

At the moment it will be scant consolation to Roddick that he has never played as well in his life. Once he was viewed as simply a one-trick pony who could unleash the most sizzling serve in the game. Now he has added so much to his armoury; a backhand that doesn’t just stand up to pressure but is repeatedly a threat to the opposition, an intelligence on when to attack the net rather than just hare in and hope, a volley that is crisp and confident, an even, subtle touch that only a few weeks ago seemed as alien to his game as playing in scruffy and non colour-coordinated clothing is to Federer.

And to say of the sensational Swiss? He served 50 aces, which is one behind Ivo Karlovic’s Wimbledon record, and shattered his own best. Tomorrow morning he will return to the world No 1 spot that he occupied for 237 weeks before being unseated by Nadal. He has now contested more grand slam finals than any man in history. He is simply supreme.

Unfortunately even the most perfect day could have been better. The Wimbledon tradition of the All England Club of course sets its own parameters but wouldn’t have been better for the spectators and the sport of tennis at large if on this occasion the men who really count in Federer’s achievement were allowed to present the trophy. A trio of Sampras, Laver and Borg sat courtside and surely they were men more fitting to share the stage than Derek Howarth, the almost anonymous president of the Lawn Tennis Association.