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WIMBLEDON, England – Roger Federer was playing for history. Andy Roddick was playing the match of his life.
On and on they dueled, Federer trying for a record-breaking 15th major championship, Roddick striving for his second, in a Wimbledon final that required more games than any Grand Slam title match in the considerable annals of a sport dating to the 1800s.
They were each other’s equal for four full sets and nearly the entire 30-game fifth set. Until Federer, far more experienced in such matters, finally edged ahead, breaking Roddick’s serve for the only time in the 77th and last game to close out a 5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14 victory Sunday.
The epic match – the fifth set alone lasted more than 1 1/2 hours – gave Federer his sixth Wimbledon title. Add that to five from the U.S. Open, three from the Australian Open and one from the French Open, and Federer’s Grand Slam total rises to 15, one more than Pete Sampras, who flew in from California on Sunday morning to be on hand.
“He’s a legend,” Sampras said. “Now he’s an icon.”
Indeed, Sampras already was among those labeling Federer the greatest tennis player ever, and there’s no doubt the 27-year-old from Switzerland keeps bolstering his case.
“It’s not really one of those goals you set as a little boy,” Federer told the Centre Court crowd during the trophy ceremony, “but, man, it’s been quite a career. And quite a month.”
Federer won the French Open four Sundays earlier to complete a career Grand Slam and tie Sampras with 14 major titles (Margaret Smith Court owns the women’s record of 24).
“Sorry, Pete,” Roddick said. “I tried to hold him off.”
He weathered Federer’s career-high 50 aces and his 107 total winners in the longest match and longest fifth set in major final history, topping marks set in 1927.
Roddick dropped to 0-3 in finals at the All England Club, also beaten by Federer in 2004 and 2005. After the match ended on a shanked forehand by the sixth-seeded American, the two men hugged at the net. A mere handshake wouldn’t do.
Federer wept with joy after his first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2003. And he bawled in the locker room after his 40-match winning streak here ended against Rafael Nadal in 2008. This time, Federer kept it together, perhaps because he was too exhausted after a match chock-full of contradictions:
• Federer’s ace count was one shy of the Wimbledon record and, most remarkably, 23 more than Roddick, who is better-known for his knee-buckling serves.
• Roddick broke serve twice in the first four sets; Federer, considered a superior returner, couldn’t come through until the match’s concluding game.
• Federer won both tiebreakers; Roddick is the one who began the day 26-4 in those set-capping races to seven points.
Then there was the most counterintuitive piece of all: that Roddick would even stay close, much less be on the verge of victory, given that he came in 2-18 against Federer, including 0-7 at majors.
Roddick made quite clear, quite quickly, that he is a new-and-improved version, delivering four passing winners by the time the match was 13 minutes old – three with his backhand, his weaker side.
Wimbledon doesn’t use tiebreakers in fifth sets, and it seemed Federer and Roddick would play into the night.
Federer faced a serious test at 8-8, though, when Roddick earned two break points with a backhand winner down the line. Federer saved the first with a 118 mph service winner, and the second with a volley winner. There was not another break point for either man until Roddick served while trailing 15-14.
At deuce, Roddick sailed a forehand long, giving Federer his seventh break point of the match. Until then, he was 0 for 6, but on championship point, Federer converted.
“Frustrating, at times, because I couldn’t break Andy till the very, very end,” Federer said. “So satisfaction is maybe bigger this time around to come through, because I couldn’t control the match at all.”
