15th major! I should have posted this yesterday, but I was out of town for the 4th and I didn't feel like mobile blogging. It was a holiday, understandable right?
Anyways, I'll come out and say it. Andy Roddick deserved to win. He played amazingly. He turned around an otherwise fading career and appears to be moving up in the world. He beat everyone including Andy Murray, a favorite from the beginning, to at least play in the finals. Then, when he was playing Federer, he continued to put up a fight. He didn't come into the match expecting to lose. Well, maybe he did and maybe he didn't. I'm guessing everyone else thought it would be 3 sets, maybe 4?
The outcome was unpredictable! One of the announcers stupidly called it a "biblical match." Not that it wasn't epic or grand, but biblical? I don't know, it just rubbed me the wrong way, but he did have to come up with clever commentary for more than 4 hours so I won't be too hard on him. Unlike Roddick, who was very hard on Federer. It was no easy major to attain. That is certain. The most games ever played! Although it wasn't the longest match, which is an oddity. Last years final between Nadal and Federer was 7 and a half hours, incredible.
This was still a great match though! I don't think we could've asked for better. It was great to see an American face in the finals. Roddick has really tightened his game, dropped 15 pounds, gained a ton of athleticism. He plays smarter and harder than ever before. I particularly liked his resentfulness at the end of the match as Federer was speaking. Granted, Federer was trying to make him feel better, but it would've been better if he hadn't said it. Essentially, he told Roddick he knew how he felt after his loss to Nadal the previous year. Knew how he felt? Roddick, who has held the silver runner up plate 3-times? Federer, who had 5 Wimbledon titles before his loss knew how Roddick must've felt? And that, is exactly what Roddick said, through tears mind you.
There's something else to analyze, Roddick was crying afterwords. It is slightly debateable. His eyes were red, lip trembling, and an announcer mentioned it, but debateable. He din't have tears streaming by any means. I for one will not demean him for his emotion. He played hard, endured set after set over the past weeks to get to this point and it came down to the 5th set and he couldn't pull through.
I say let him be. Roddick will be back and I think we will see him at the top of tennis for some time. His transformation is astounding. I actually wanted Federer to win so I was happy with the outcome, but you can't help but feel for Roddick. It seemed like his time. His tournament.
Monday, July 6, 2009
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