IT MAY have lacked the passion and drama of last year’s epic men’s final with Rafa Nadal but yesterday’s historic win for Roger Federer over Andy Roddick was no less stunning. A match that easily broke the four-hour mark and handed Federer a record 15 Grand Slam titles revolved around bursts of intensity on the big points and finally fell the way of the Swiss player in the 30th game of the fifth set.
That fraught fifth set also ensured that the evening’s historical meeting broke the record for the most games ever played in a Wimbledon final.
It was finally a mishit forehand from Roddick that sent the ball looping high in the air and out of the court that presented Federer with the number he had been chasing since he first began to dominate the sport five years ago.
He immediately leapt high in the air and as he did the crowd of 15,000 stood up to applaud. He is a player they have come to know well. He is the stainless champion, a prefect in the locker room, whose idea of rebellion is to wear a naff jacket with gold braid. But he is a player who has graced Centre Court on the final day of the championships seven times and won it six times.
What was it like too have won 15 majors, Federer was asked after the 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14 win. “That’s a good question – I like it,” he smiled. “It’s staggering I have been able to play well for so many years and stay injury-free. It’s crazy that I’ve been able to win so many in such a short period of time.
“I’m happy I broke the record here. This is always the tournament that meant most to me. It definitely feels it’s come full circle starting it here and sort of ending it here. It was also nice a lot of legends were sitting there, especially Pete (Sampras). I know how much the record means to him and he knows exactly what the record means for me.”
At the moment Roddick’s ball spun hopelessly away from the court the 27-year-old stepped away from all of the other multiple champions in tennis and confirmed his greatness and place in history. But there were no tears this year, no emotional outbursts. Federer thanked the crowd and also turned to thank the player he had just beaten, the player who almost turned his back on the game a year ago.
Roddick was clearly devastated. The sweat dripped from the peak of his cap as it always does and the eyes were sunken but his spirit was also severely shredded and even as the crowd chanted his name as he sat in his chair by the discarded racquet staring at the ground, all he could muster was a wave of his hand.
Did you lose to the world’s greatest tennis player, Roddick was asked afterwards. “Yeah,” he replied flatly. “He was having trouble picking up my serve today for the first time ever. You know, you didn’t even get a sense that he was even really frustrated by it. He gets a lot of credit for a lot of things but not a lot of the time for toughing out matches and digging deep. He doesn’t get a lot of credit for that because it looks easy to him a lot of the time.”
The script in may people’s heads had been written long before Federer and Roddick had stepped on court and it read something like Roddick takes a bullet in the third set and Federer rides off into the sunset with his sixth Wimbledon title and the record in his back pocket.
But the crowd, who appeared to be evenly divided between the American and Swiss players, saw a dramatically different story unfold. It was Federer who pulled out the big service games, and hit the aces, 50 in all and it was Federer who dogged it out for over four hours, 18 minutes and who won the marathon final set 16-14.
Watched by Woody Allen and Henry Kissinger, it was actor Russell Crowe sitting up in the stands and his Roman gladiator character, Maximus, that most appropriately set the scene over the 75 games and two tie-breaks.
“I never thought I could be this consistent, that great a player with so many qualities. Because I know I have qualities everywhere in the game and I know I have deficits. I don’t know if you’re a legend as long as you are still playing the sport. So lets wait and see,” said Federer.
On his T-shirt blazed the logo. “There is no finish line. Far from done.” Yesterday was certainly as close as anyone has gotten in getting it done so far.
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