Roger, the Victor and Andy, the Vanquished !!!!!!!!!!

Advantage Federer, at 15-14, final set. And a nice forehand return from him to Andy Roddick’s backhand. Andy’s backhand goes haywire, and…… GAME SET AND MATCH ROGER FEDERER. 5-7, 7-6 (8-6), 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 16-14. The new Wimbledon champion, Roger Federer!!!!

After 4 hours and 16 mins of intense battle, the Swiss ace came up trumps on a hot and sunny afternoon against a rejuvenated gladiator in Andy Roddick to claim his 6th Wimbledon crown and more importantly, surpass Pete Sampras as the greatest tennis player in men’s history with 15 grand slam crowns to his name. More importantly, he achieved what Pete never could, which is to win the French Open too, co-incidentally equalling Pete’s record with that win in Rolland Garros in 2009. So, there was a new human being accepting the crown as the greatest tennis player ever in the history of the game.

But spare a thought for Andy Roddick. He played the match of his life. He initially was not serving great and in a crucial tie-breaker in the second set, where he was 6-2 up, he committed hara-kiri to lose 6 points in a row in 3 minutes, which eventually may be termed as the turning point of the match. It was there that one felt that Roger Federer was destined to win this Wimbledon crown. But Roddick was outstanding not only in the finals, but throughout the tournament. His serve was as impeccable as ever, but what was heartening to see was his approach to the game. It had changed drastically from what I had seen of him earlier.

Roddick always depends a lot on his big booming serves. But in this edition of the Championships, he was not only serving big but his returns and placement of his shots were simply mind boggling. He made all his opponents, including the King, run around the court in search of the tennis ball, who, most often than not, missed it. Roddick’s attitude also had completely changed from the usual aggressive one. He was more prepared to play the waiting game and when he got the chance, cash in on it. Well, till the finals that is.

Federer, on the other hand, was his usual demolishing self, stamping one after the other of his opponents with ease. The fact that he dropped a set was in itself a mojor news in the newspapers. Such was his dominance over the rest of the pack till the finals.

Sunday, the 5th of July, 2009. At 12:00 pm, London time, both Roddick and Federer came out to the cheers of a packed house in the Centre Court to face each other in one of the most anticipated finals in sometime, with people expecting Roger Federer to make history on the day. Legends like Rod Laver, Bjon Borg, Pete Sampras and even the Manchester United Manager, Sir Alex Ferguson did not want to miss history in the making. Most people expected it to be a good match but one where Federer would dominate over Roddick as their head-to-head was completely in favour of Federer. Also people thought that he had to take revenge to what happened last year on the same court where Rafael Nadal defeated him in an epic 5-setter to be the new king of grass. People were also under the impression that the fact that Nadal was not on the other side of the court made Federer’s life that much easier. Boy, were they proved wrong !!!!!!

The first set was going to serve till Roddick broke Federer’s serve to take it 7-5. It was a great beginning for him and not a good one for Roger. But the most important fact here was that Federer was serving much better than Roddick at this point but made a few more unforced errors than him too. Federer also had only one chance to break Roddick’s serve, which he sprayed.

Come the second set, the games went on serve to both the players. It was 6-6 and the Tie break began. Roddick raced away to a 6-2 lead and Federer was serving to stay in touch, facing 4 break points. But the King of grass was as calm and composed as ever. He came up with some great servesand returns to take the second set 7-6 (8-6). He had won 6 points on the row to snatch the set from the hands of Roddick. The weak link here was Roddick’s serve. Though fast, at more than 200 kph, it was easily picked by Roger.

The third set also went into a tie break and here, federer did not give any scope for any dramas like the one in the second set and got the crucial points to win the set 7-6 (7-5) to go 2-1 up. Most of the people thought that now Federer will take complete advantage of the situation and win the match easily from here on.

Start of the 4th set. Initially, the games went on serve but Roddick had appreciably picked up his game. He was serving much better, more on the body of Roger, which was difficult to pick for the champ. But the ground strokes that Andy started to display were simple astounding !!. He was making Roger run all around the court and used not only power-packed shots but some intelligent lobs as well as deft touch shots near the net, which were simply impossible for Roger to pick. Crucially, Andy broke Roger’s serve twice to run away with the set 6-3.

So, it was 2 set all and at 2 hrs 41 mins, there was no indication as to who was dominating this match, though Andy was playing much better tennis than Roger. Roger was not getting his forehand strokes in court and was committing more unforced errors, interspersed with some breath-taking strokes at some point to get some good winners.

When the final set started, it was 5 pm London Time. The sun was shining and the players were sweating it out in the middle. Neither one was ready to give even an inch to the other. Both were desperate for the crown. Start of the 5th set, remember no tie-breaks in the final set.
It started to take a nice shape when it reached 6-6 and people started to realize they were watching an epic here, if they had not yet realized it already. By then, Andy was playing some outstanding tennis and more and more people thought that he would spoil Roger’s party here today. The set then continued…. 7-7, 8-8, 9-9, 10-10…. Nobody was giving up at any stage. Each one was playing with such adrenaline that even on their serves, if the score became 0-30, with the other having a sniff of a break point, they would nullify it with 2-3 booming serves to go and hold on to the serve. Once, I guess when it was 11-11, with Roger serving, he was 30-40 down, with Andy having a break point. He served with such zeal that he got the score to deuce and won the game with 3 consecutive aces. 12-11. Roddick held serve, 12-12. We were all going crazy !!!!!

Imagine the emotions and the thought process of the players themselves. They not only had physical strain, but also mentally they would be drained. But nobody wanted to give up. 13-13…. 14-14. Roger to serve. He served well, with ace after ace, serving his 50th ace during the course of the game to hold serve in another nervy game to go up 15-14. It was already the longest 5th set and the match duration was 4hr 10 mins. Roddick to serve. With him serving so immaculately at the body of Federer throughout the final set, one expected him to win the game in a canter. 15-0… 30-0… then came a Federer magic, where he wrong footed Andy to force an error to make it 30-15. It soon became 30-30. Then, again Andy had the big serves coming to make it 40-30. Well, here goes another round !!!!!!! This is what most people expected.

Something happened out of the ordinary…. Federer got a winner to make it deuce. Then, Andy brought back sense into the game with a booming serve to get an advantage. Federer got it to deuce with a scorching winner. Then, luck favored Roger, with his mis-hit drop shot was smashed back by Roddick, but straight at Federer’s feet, which was put off with ease into the open court by Federer to get him only his second break point in the entire match !!!!!!!!!!!

Then, Roddick’s second serve was attended to with ease by Federer, returned back to him by Roddick. Federer then placed the ball deep to Roddick’s backhand. There was the defining moment. Roddick missed his backhand, which went long and thus, after 4hrs and 16 mins, Roger Federer had scripted an amazingly outstanding victory to make it his 15th Grand Slam victory and 6th at the All England Lawn Tennis Club !!!!!!!! The scenes after the match will be remembered for years to come.



If we had seen an outstanding Finals in 2008, this had no words to describe it. It will go down into the history books as one of the greatest matches of all time. Imagine, the final set itself went for 95 enthralling minutes. The stamina of both the athletes was simply spell-bounding, both able to serve at over 200 kph even after 4 hrs of grueling tennis in the hot July sun.

It really was an epic. But, amidst all these, just spare a thought for Andy Roddick. He must be kicking himself for not closing out the second set when he had the opportunity. He gave everything he had in his reserves. The comment he made after the match, where he apologized to Pete Sampras for not being able to hold off Federer speaks volumes of his attitude. HE WAS DSEPERATE TO WIN THE CHAMPIONSHIPS. But, Andy, this was just not your day!!!

All said and done, Roger is the Master after all. He now has achieved all but one, winning all 4 majors in the same year. Hope he does that. And I also hope that next year, it is Andy Roddick who wins the Wimbledon crown. Though I am a strong supporter of Roger Federer, I felt Andy Roddick deserved to win this year’s Wimbledon crown as he played a match much much superior to Federer. I hope most of Federer’s supporters agree to this.

I would also like to give my congratulations to the coverage of Wimbledon, especially that by Radio Wimbledon, whom I had to resort to during the final stages of the match, listening to them online. They spoke commendably, keeping us abreast to all the happening s on court and describing so effectively that we could picturize as to what was going on on the court. Hats off to them and the two gentlemen who made such a memorable tennis match happen.

Andy Roddick, take a bow !!!!!!!!!!!!

Sudi