Roger Federer has emerged triumphant from a historic first meeting with Serena Williams in the Hopman Cup, on winning historically mixed doubles match against fellow tennis great Serena Williams, but in the end, the result hardly mattered, but tennis was the true winner as two of the game's greats treated fans worldwide to an unforgettable evening.
Paired with Belinda Bencic, Federer beat Williams and Frances Tiafoe 4-2 4-3 (5-3) to give Switzerland a 2-1 win over the United States in their round robin match.
More importantly, it was the first and probably the last time for the fans would get to see two best tennis players clashing together. And after in the end, it was very hard to pose but the two seemed very happy in the selfie that gone viral after the one single click.
However, despite the disappointing defeat which leaves the United States unable to reach the final of an event it has won six times, Serena clearly relished testing herself against Federer.
"It was a great experience, I'm sad it is over, I was just warming up," she joked.
Serena also had no doubt as to the status of the 20 grand slams winner.
"I mean the guy is the greatest of all time, both on and off the court," she said.
The widely-anticipated clash has been the highlight of the 31st staging of the Hopman Cup with a record 14,029 packing into the Perth Arena to see the match-up.
Switzerland will defend its unbeaten record against Greece in its final round-robin match Wednesday with the US taking on Britain.
The Swiss maestro had talked before the match of his nervousness. "I was nervous returning because it's a wonderful serve and you just can't read it," said Federer in the post-match interviews.
"It was great fun and she is a great champion. You can see how focused she is and that's what I love about her."
Serena said, there's a reason why Federer is so great. He has a killer serve. I've watched him all the time but I never realized how good it was.
"I was nervous returning her serve. I was telling myself at 3-all in the tie-break, I'm serving against Serena Williams. But maybe this was what I always wanted".
