Just before the start of Wimbledon when Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the competition(only after Ivanisevic in 2002 that the defending champion was not playing),I personally thought that it would be a cake-walk for Federer and the only man I thought who could stop Federer was Andy Murray(who made very big statements just before the start of Wimbledon,but could not show that in his game,People started talking about renaming the “Henman” hill to “Murray” hill).And when the tournament started Federer probably for the first time in the last couple of years lost a set in the initial rounds and he was not looking invincible.
As the tournament progressed I felt Lleywton Hewitt was playing very good tennis and he was turning out to be a very good contender for the final spot.(Since one spot is already taken by Federer from past five years consistently).
Andy started the tournament slowly like an under-dog and silently reached the Quarter-finals.
I thought that was his first real test where he was playing Lleywton Hewitt and I did not expect Roddick to win the match(I did not watch the whole match was following the updates)I felt he pulled that one and his next match was against Murray(probably the favorite to win the Wimbledon this year) and just before Roddick's match against Murray,Hewitt expressed his views over the semi-final between Roddick and Murray(everyone is free to say what they feel),he said that over the years Roddick did not improve his game very much what his weakness were previously are still a weakness and he has not worked much on his game and he said that Murray is going to win the match very comfortably without any trouble from the American.
I personally felt that Hewitt was hard on Roddick and firstly it is good for him to think about his game and he has some more time left for him to comment on others(When he retires) and I dont remember when was the last time he reached the final of a grand-slam(just forget about winning one).
Just before the start of semi-final when whole Britain was supporting Murray,someone asked Roddick how is he going to tackle that on court when whole crowd is behind Murray.The reply which he gave has astonished me that when the crowd is cheering ANDY-ANDY(for Murray) he will take that they are cheering for him("Andy" Roddick).
After the semi-final I was a bit shocked to see "American" Andy winning.
Coming to the big match the FINAL of the Wimbledon where I personally felt that Roddick losses half the match when the opponent is Fed,may be he is fighting some ghosts in his mind and he lost 3 finals to him before this (2 Wimbledon's and 1 US open,he reached a final of a grandslam only 4 times).
And there were many more occasions where he lost in the semis.
Now all the legends predicted that it was Fed who is going to win even this time and mostly their prediction was 3-0(sets) in favour of Fed and even Pete made himself available for the final to see Fed winning his 15th Grandslam(beating Pete's record of 14).
It was the big day and I made myself available and taken the control of TV Remote so that none my friends disturb me(I am a very big Optimist coming to tennis always wanting Fed to loose and even after so many failures I was all set to cheer for Andy).
I was very tensed and was keeping my fingers crosses watching every shot played by Roddick so that it does not end in an unforced error and I was amazed to see the way Andy was serving,probably for the first time Fed was facing a problem with Andy's serves and it was great to see the accuracy with which he was serving and the body serves where the serve was aimed at Fed's body,Fed can hardly do any thing with them.
He was returning the Fed's serve very well and had many occasions where he came close to breaking his serve and after he was successful in his 6 th attempt winning the first set 7-5.
And throughout the match Roddick was aiming at Fed' back-hand which was a bit weaker when compared to his fore-hand(where every fore-hand he turns it into a winner).
Fed came back strongly in the second the set where each and every game was treat to watch Fed was playing better tennis in this set and more winners were flowing from his racquet and we got a chance to see the glimpses of his magic but he was not successful in breaking the Roddick's serve he came very close to doing so by taking an early advantage but whenever Roddick was lagging in his serve he came back strongly with something close to extra-ordinary with aces,winners.....
And Andy started the tie-break very well and I thought he was going to win pretty easily it when the score was 6-2 and he had two serves with him but he lost his concentration and in the whole match this was the first occasion where he lost his concentration and even hit a double fault and losing 6-8.(Only two occasions in the match where he lost his concentration and that proved very costly,this was one and I will discuss the other one shortly).
When the third set started I thought that the match was going to end in 3-1 in the favour of Fed when Roddick lost the tie-break which he almost won,I felt that it would be hard for him to come back after that.
The story continued in the third set where both the players were successful in holding their respective serves and set got into the tie-break where fed won even this time.
And Fed winning the third set made my feeling even stronger that Fed is going to win it 3-1.
But Roddick came back strongly in the fourth by breaking Fed very early in the match and winning the set comfortably 6-3.
Then came the decider the fifth set coming into the fifth set Roddick started as a favorite because there are no tie-breakers in the decider set and Roddick has broken Fed's serve on two occasions.
But the Fifth Set was the best set I have ever seen in my life it was so close and the pendulum was swinging both sides and after saving his 14 games in the set and 36 games overall Roddick faltered his serve for the first time and that costed him the match.
Unfortunately,this was the only other occasion where he lost his concentration and he lost one more match to Fed worsening his head-head record to 19-2.
Fed jumped in joy he did not cry what he did after losing Australian Open and Roddick was left standing and probably this would be the first time when he might have felt pretty lonely in his life.
There were 50 aces from Fed to around 25 from Andy but he served better than that if it was not Fed the number would be very big(Fed has a very good reach ).
He came very close in winning the Wimbledon(probably to a touching distance) for the first time in his life but he had nothing to blame but his fate.
I think this was the best that Roddick has ever played(I have seen him playing) and I doubt whether he will be able to repeat this performance in future(He can surprise anyone,keep watching for him).
He tried everything he can to stop Fed from breaking the world record(That's what he said to Pete in the Post Match Conference-"Sorry Pete I tried my best to stop him from breaking your record,but I could not" Roddick).
But for me the winner is Andy Roddick,he was able to surprise each everyone maybe even he was surprised the way he played.
The two lapses of concentration,one in the tie-break and the other in the final game have costed him the game dearly,but that is how life is when it comes to close matches you need a bit of luck to win them,I think that was the only thing missing in Roddick's game.
I will watch out for him in the US Open and I think he will be a strong contender for the title along with the other Andy i am not sure how Nadal will perform after the long lay off(Federer is always a contender).
Prior to this match there were 3 matches which were very special to me and the matches which I enjoyed the most they were
i)Australian Open semi final 2005 between Marat Safin and Roger Federer
ii)Wimbledon Final 2008 between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal
iii)Australian Open final 2009 between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal
The only thing that differentiates this match with the previous ones it that this is the only match in which Federer won and he was common in all the matches.
I love to see someone making life tough for the Champion(Fed),but this time I liked Roddick and I did not miss the presence of Rafael Nadal this year.
Please don't end your career with only one granslam to your name.You are far far better than that.
Roddick keep playing like this ALL THE BEST!!!
