Roger Federer created a history by becoming the first player to win 15 grand slams. In a nerve-wrecking encounter at the centre court on 5th july 2009m, he overcame a stubborn Andy Roddick by 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14 to rewrite the history books. It was a great win and an epic final played in front of the former multiple champions.
(Source: Wimbledon.org)
Our Perspective:
It is no longer a news that Federer won the the wimbledon and thus rewrote the history books. But what we want to do is look at how this epic final changes the dynamics of current men's tennis. We would like to start first by paying our tribute to Federer for his win and his career in which he has reached 21 consecutive semifinals and 19 finals winning 15 of them. It is a lot to ask for and even Rod Laver at his prime might have struggled to beat that feat.
While everyone has been focussing on federers win and rightly so, we want to see the positives that we have been able to witness in these two weeks of glorious tennis. For some times past men's tennis has only been about Federer and Nadal, with sometimes Andy Murray showing flashes of brilliance that he is capable of. But here, during the tournament, we witnessed two former world number one's claiming their stakes at the very top level, in Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt. Although Hewitt lost in the quarter finals, that was against a resurgent and very determined Andy Roddick, who was himself making his own comeback. With his injury problems behind him, it is very clear that Hewitt is destined to become a formidable force once more in his career.
Roddicks dip in form over the last two seasons must have forced him to questioned himself why he was playing this game. With federer and nadal fighting for the grandslams, he had to either improve himself on every department of his game or quit playing forever. He chose the former option and hired Larry Stefanki as his coach. Stefanki helped him lose 6 kgs which resulted him in being more mobile over the court. Also he has worked on his groundstrokes and previously one dimensional roddick who only depended on his serves and looked out-of-sorts when it did not work, seemed to be a match in every department for Federer.
Although federer won the match, it was in fact Roddick who had more break of serves than Federer. Federer didn't have any answer for his serves until the last game, but did his best to hang on there and wait for the right opportunity. Roddick always found a way to get out of trouble with his first serve, and if he continues the way he did here, it will be tough to bet against him at the flushing meadows. Who know what might happen there with the home crowd behind him.
Men's tennis seems to have a lot to offer with Roddick and Hewitt coming back to form, and when Nadal returns from his injury it will be a treat to watch them plying their trade against each other. Andy Murray is still learning and already ranked third in the world. With Fernando Verdasco, big serving Karlovic waiting in the wings it will be a tough ride for Federer to defend his US Open, but who is there to bet against it???
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