Federer's Fifteenth... At Wimbledon
Roger Federer made tennis history today by beating American, Andy Roddick, 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14 at Wimbledon. Roddick played a smart match tactically, coming to net frequently and opening up Federer’s backhand with occasional well-placed backhands down the line and hard-hit forehands to Federer’s forehand. In the end, a few loose shots by
Roddick at inopportune times, i.e. a missed backhand volley to the open court on set point in the second set tie-breaker and a few shanked groundies in the last two games coupled with Federer’s amazing serving (i.e. 50 aces compared to Roddick’s 27), especially on the key points, made the difference. Roddick was only broken once in the match at 14-15 in the fifth set after more than four hours of play. This truly memorable match, played in front of several former champions including Rod Laver, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras, included a legendary fifth set that deserved to end in a draw, but in tennis that’s not possible. For Federer, who will regain the Number One ranking on Monday, the past two months have been a remarkable turnaround after some tough losses to Nadal at the 2008 Wimbledon and 2009 Australian Open and questions regarding whether he was losing his “edge” during the past year. Instead, Federer has achieved multiple milestones by winning the French Open and Wimbledon back to back. equally Pete Sampras’ Grand Slam record and then surpassing it less than a month later. Federer has also now reached a record twenty Grand Slam singles finals. On the other side of the net, one has to sympathize with Andy Roddick after such a heartbreaking loss. In five days, Roddick will be playing Davis Cup on clay in Croatia, but hopefully he will find time to recognize that this loss showed how great he can play… in the future. First French Open title… Career Slam… Fourteen Slams… Wimbledon title… his Sixth… Fifteen Slams… For Federer, the dance goes on… Greatest of all time? No question!
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