WIMBLEDON — The now greatest player ever was bruised, but he wasn’t beaten yet.
After sustaining a barrage of aces, groundstroke winners and crisp volleys, Roger Federer faced two break points at 8-8 in the fifth set against American Andy Roddick, who was surely playing the Grand Slam match of his life in the Wimbledon final. But Federer did not want to walk away from the final like he did last year, his face splattered with tears after a wrenching 9-7 loss in the fifth set to Rafael Nadal. So this time, he responded, cracking a wicked service winner, launching another service bullet and then taking Roddick’s next return and ripping a swing volley winner.
He eventually held to 9-8 and then the clock began to tick loudly on the American’s tired legs. He hadn’t been broken in the match to that point and, even after blowing the second set tiebreaker, looked like the better and more consistent player on the day.
But that was Federer across the net from him, the same man who for good reason owned an 18-2 record against him coming into the match, who had beaten him at seven previous majors, including three times at Wimbledon.
The Swiss kept serving the daylight out of London and Roddick, and Roddick sensed that Federer was growing a bit more confident returning too.
“He was having trouble picking up my serve today for the first time ever,” Roddick said. “He just stayed the course. 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 is how many matches he kind of digs deep and toughs out.”
Roddick later got out of a hole to even the longest men’s final (in terms of total games) at 14-14 with two searing service winners. He had held serve from behind facing match games on 10 straight occasions. Even the toughest of men weaken at the thought of it.
“You just keep going,” Roddick said. “Looking back it seems like a lot, but each time it was just a point, and then another one and then another one. I guess it added up after a while.”
But then Federer easily held again to 15-14, and with the shadows creeping over the court, the tension became too much for the 2003 U.S. Open champion. Roddick had worked diligently all year at improving his all-around game in order to re-enter the top-five conversation, but the man who was on the verge of cracking Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Slam crowns seemed lighter of foot and certainly more sure of his place in history.
Coming into the final, Federer was foot loose and fancy free, having put down the massive serving Ivo Karlovic in the quarters and then the resurgent German, Tommy Haas in the semis, who had upset Fed’s now wavering rival, Novak Djokovic. Sure Federer didn’t have to best another member of the Big 4, but with two bum knees, Nadal would have been hard pressed to get out of the first week and was forced to withdraw. Plus, the highly touted No. 3, Britain’s Andy Murray, failed to live up to his oversized pre-tournament billing and was out-toughed by a more resourceful Roddick in the semis.
Roddick displayed a deeper mental reserve than former champ Lleyton Hewitt in the quarters and despite the fact that brash Scot Murray owned a 6-2 record against him entering the contest and had his entire nation pulling hard for him, Roddick gave Murray a veteran’s lesson on playing under pressure.
But in the last game against the fearless Federer, Roddick finally cracked. He couldn’t convert two game points when he committed two backhand errors and at deuce, Federer half-framed a backhand return that Roddick butchered on his forehand side. On the Swiss’ first match point, Roddick framed an easy forehand into the sky and way wide.
Federer roared in celebration after the 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6,16-14 victory as Sampras – who had flown all night from his home in Los Angeles – clapped mightily for his friend and all Roddick could do after his heroic effort was return to his chair and reflect with tears in his eyes on what might have been after 4 hours and 16 minutes of brilliant, nail-biting theater.
“It’s hard,” said Federer, who ended the match with 50 aces and 107 winners overall. “Tennis is cruel sometimes. I went through some five setters in Grand Slam finals too and ended up losing. But I think he did great. He’s not going to let his head hang down.”
Had Roddick taken care of set points in the second set tiebreaker, Wimbledon might have had a new champion, but down 6-2, Federer came up with an amazing series of shots, while Roddick gagged on a huge one. After Federer had nailed a backhand half volley winner, an ace and service winner to get to 5-6, Roddick approached the net and looked at an easy high backhand volley, but seized up and hit it well wide.
“When he first hit it, I thought I wasn’t gonna play it,” Roddick recalled. “Last minute, it looked like it started dropping. I couldn’t get my racket around on it.”
The match might have been decided there, as Federer went on to seize the next two points and the set. Federer later admitted that it would have been extremely difficult to come from two sets down with the way that the American was serving.
But Roddick continued to stay the course, battling his way into a third set tiebreaker which Federer won with a forehand crosscourt winner, and grabbing the fourth set when he broke Federer early with a screaming backhand down the line and then held firm.
“We’re human. We’re not cyborgs,” said Roddick, who ended the match with 74 winners and only 33 unforced errors. At that point there’s two options: You lay down or you keep going. The second option sounded better to me.”
The same option sounded just as good to Federer, who has now rewritten the history books. After his record-setting 15th major, should Federer be called the greatest ever? More than a few luminaries say yes.
There are varied opinions on the topic, as it’s nearly impossible to compare him with pre-Open Era players, many of whom were forced to miss majors. Moreover, there remains the one big strike against him – his 7-13 record against his primary rival – Nadal.
But as Federer says, injuries are part of the game and he himself had to deal with a bout of mononucleosis as well as a back injury. Without question, until Federer turns his rivalry against the younger Spaniard around, some will question whether he deserves the greatest of all time moniker. Roger though, points out that Nadal’s health is not his fault.
“Tennis, that’s the way it goes,” said Federer, who is once again the world’s No. 1 player. “Everybody expected Murray to be in the finals. He wasn’t there. It’s not the mistake of the one who wins at the end.”
Even though Sampras is friendly with Roddick, he more than backed up his buddy Federer’s claim to greatness, saying that everyone should now take a bow to the Swiss, who has won majors on all four surfaces. “The critics say (Rod) Laver, and Nadal beat him a few times in majors, but he’s won all the majors, he’s going to win a few more here, so in my book he is (the greatest),” Sampras said.
Former three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker backed Sampras up: “Winning the French Open and in doing so collecting all four Grand Slam trophies, in my opinion, has made him the greatest player in history.”
The 27-year-old still has a few more things to accomplish on the court – attempting to win his sixth straight U.S. Open title, winning Davis Cup for the first time, getting after Nadal again.
But on Sunday at the All England Club, he wanted to dispel a myth – that’s he’s too cool and collected and lacks inner fire. When asked what quality was key in his 15 major wins, he brought up one that isn’t discussed very much. “Just the fight, because I’m famous for being all casual and relaxed out there, not showing much.”
