WIMBLEDON, England -- Roger Federer hoisted the trophy and celebrated making Grand Slam history, a year removed from an epic five-set final when he left Wimbledon a broken man, his title ripped away and his aura of invincibility shattered.
Federer waged another five-set marathon Sunday, and left as the holder of the most prestigious record in tennis. This time, the winner's trophy belonged to him, with the No. 1 ranking in his grasp again and his reputation enhanced as perhaps the greatest player in history.
Federer won his record 15th Grand Slam title, outlasting Andy Roddick for his sixth Wimbledon championship in a match that went to 30 games in the final set.
Federer served a career-high 50 aces and overcame the resilient American 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14 to break the record of major titles he shared with Pete Sampras.
"I'm happy I broke the record here because this is always the tournament that meant the most to me," Federer said. "It definitely feels like coming full circle, starting it here and ending it here."
The match finally ended after 4 hours, 16 minutes when Federer broke for the first time all day, with Roddick missing on a forehand.
Federer jumped high in celebration, punched the air and whacked the net with his racket. Roddick tossed his racket to the side and the two men shared a hug at the net. Federer kissed the trophy and brought it close to his chest.
- ESPN.com
2 comments:
Im really happy for Roger, but the other part of me really feels for Andy Roddick. This was probably the biggest match of his life. He was won Grand Slams before, but to beat Federer on his own surface, to deny him the 15th Grand Slam would have been a huge boost for Roddick and American mens tennis.
As it was, he played the match of his life and lost. I cant even imagine what is going through his head right now.
For Roger, we all knew this was coming, it just came a little bit faster than we anticipated, and it didnt come against his archrival Rafa Nadal. But the match did not disappoint, the final set went to 16-14! Sadly, I only watched highlights because once again, I forgot to set my DVR. Of course, every time they play the match of the year, I forget to set my DVR.
As a side note, both Americans James Blake and Andy Roddick are poker players.
Roddick had 6-2 lead in 2nd set Tiebreak to go 2-0 up in sets. And his record in Tiebreaks was brought up during the Murray match - he was 28-3 win/lose or thereabouts whereas most people would be really happy with just a 2:1 ratio.
Anyway if you asked anyone, any match if they could play for 4 hours against the greatest player ever and not lose a service game, they'd take it. Andy really did deserve to win too, he denied Andy Murray a shot at it but put up a fight that would have made Murray proud.
I was just willing the match to go on so the scoreboard would say 2:2 15:15 30:30 and work out like it had become a calculator :)
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