I miss the serve and volley days.
I miss the net judge with his finger on the tape.
I miss Edberg-Becker every other year.
I miss watching the Wimbledon finals in the tennis shed.
But at 13-12 in the fifth set right now, I can't imagine that any of those things could have made this a greater match.
Andy Roddick has stepped up his game to a level that I never believed was possible from him.
We could be here a while.
5 comments:
Listening on Wimbledon Radio, had to go turn on NBC when the championship point came up. Wow.
I was sitting at the NEA RA when they flashed up the score. I too thought about sitting in the heat watching the finals. There is something to be said for tradition. See you next weekend.
Talk about bizarro match...Federer was dominating with the serve, while Roddick was blistering him with the backhand. It was certainly tense, but I'll be honest, I didn't get sucked in the way that last year's final did. Shot-making wasn't as impressive to me and the points weren't as dramatic or long-lasting...75+ aces tends to do that.
I feel very bad for Roddick. I'm a huge Federer fan but I was definitely pulling for Andy in this one. As unfair this might be, it doesn't seem like much of an accomplishment without Nadal in the mix. Roddick played his guts out. It has to be disheartening to play the best match of your life and still come up short.
Sully - it wasn't nearly the equal of last year's match, no, but it was far, far greater than what I expected from this year's. When I saw that Roddick was up against Federer, I assumed it was going to be another rout. And at least it was better than the Sampras-Ivanisevic matches where there were no rallies longer than like four shots.
CMorin - Roddick was understandably crushed. This was as close as he's come to beating his absolute nemesis and as close as he's had to win his second grand slam championship.
As for the accomplishment of winning the title without Nadal being less of an accomplishment, that's something that I only partially agree with. At some point, an athlete's greatness depends on being healthy.
Yes, it would have been a greater accomplishment had Federer beaten Nadal, but Nadal wasn't there. There was nothing that Federer could do about that. He showed up, and Nadal didn't. If anything, that is a notch in Federer's favor. He's been in twenty-two consecutive Grand Slam semifinals, and part of that has been because he's been healthy for every one of those.
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