Roger Federer is Houdini, Congrats to Roddick, Too

It's going to take me days to recover from yesterday's Wimbledon final, and I only watched. This was one of the most astonishing matches I've seen, beyond the excellent play, for the competitive intensity. 

Andy Roddick served 37 straight games without being broken, until finally he gave up one, solitary break point and that was the last one of the long day: Roger Federer won his sixth Wimbledon title by beating Roddick 5-7, 7-6 (6),7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14. 

Federer was, once again, Houdini reincarnate: He was down a set and four set points in the tiebreaker and yet came back. But BBC announcer Sue Barker was right that, "Tennis is cruel," because Roddick truly did not deserve to lose. Roddick played incredibly well. Andy proved that he is more than a huge server, he not only held his own on baseline rallies but often dictated play. 

They played under terrible conditions. Both players were slipping, sliding and even falling on the baked, worn court that was basically hard rock, full of large cracks and pot holes, covered with blown dust, with patches of slippery grass, and the wind was gusting. If you had a court in your backyard as bad as Wimbledon's center court, you'd plow it up and plant tomatoes. Only McEnroe's announcing was worse.

Yet, while Federer frequently pulled his punches because of the difficulty of getting a clean hit, Roddick seemed to handle the conditions better, pushing Fed with more pace on his forehand. 

Roddick hit several, great down-the-line backhand passes. More subtlely, he was far more effective at the net than in the past because he was more patient about when to approach, perplexing one of the best passers in the business for 42 net winners. 

This match was more about two fighters with heart than numbers, but the stats are notable: Since Fed couldn't win from the baseline, he simply put a dime in all four corners of the services boxes and $5 bucks later (50 times) he hit 50 aces. Yes, Federer hit 50 aces in one match. I believe only three other players have ever hit over 50 aces in a pro match -- Joachim Johansson, Ivo Karlovic (twice), and Ed Gauder -- yet oddly, Federer is the first to win his match. One, at 135 mph, may be the fastest of his career. 

I've never seen such a sustained serving display like this, from both sides of the court. If you follow major league baseball, you know that managers are obsessed with pitch counts. They don't let a pitcher go much over 100 pitches for fear of hurting their arms and endangering their careers. Both players hit over 300 serves at a consistently high level, never letting their concentration ebb. If this had been a baseball game, both teams would have pulled their tired starters, deployed their middle relievers, followed with their closers, cleared the bullpen and now put in an outfielder in an attempt to close the game out. 

The match went 77 games. 

Fed hit 107 winners (triple digits ? ! ). 

A 30-game fifth set, longest final set in Grand Slam history. 

Of the many quotes afterwards, the best came from someone who should know, Rod Laver: "I think the public should just watch his feet, just watch Roger and not the ball, and you'd see how a great player is able to pull off his shots."

Congratulations and thank you to both Roger Federer and to Andy Roddick. You're both champions. 

Here are some of the stats, but I don't see a measure of their hearts. 

Comments

[Jack]

GREAT report Jim on a truly GREAT match . . . yes . . . the 'heart' is unfortunately not a measurement that is well enough represented, certainly here.

Thanks for putting into words some of the feelings that were 'spoken' yesterday.

Jack