The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Federer digs deep to retain title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Jul 06, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Federer digs deep to retain title

By Nirmal Shekar

LONDON, JULY 5. The visionary architect with a genius for geometry donned a hard hat and blue overalls and went to work on the building site. It was quite an unusual sight.

But, what the hell, Roger Federer got the job done, one way and then the other, in the 118th Wimbledon championships on Sunday. And going by the evidence of the last one and a half sets of the men's singles final, the champion is well on his way to building a tiny monument to his own genius in tennis' great cathedral.

In the gloom of an overcast afternoon when tiny spots of rain twice interrupted play, the defending champion from Switzerland, his magical powers hidden away under a cloud, bravely faced a one-man American firing squad by the name of Andy Roddick, dodged all the bullets, and manfully reinvented himself as a winner in brilliant late afternoon sunshine.

The top seeded Federer's 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(3), 6-4 defeat of the second seeded Roddick in two hours and 30 minutes (as briefly reported) on the centre court saw him become the first man to successfully hold on to his title since the incomparable Pete Sampras in 2000.

It wasn't the best of Wimbledon finals; nor was it the worst. The rain delays made it difficult for both players to settle into a rhythm but when push came to shove, it was Federer who came out on top to keep his record in the Grand Slam finals clean — three out of three.

``I threw the kitchen sink at him. He went to the bathroom and got his tub,'' said Roddick, giving credit to his opponent and accepting defeat gracefully. "Roger was just too good today.''

In truth, Federer nowhere as good as he can be, especially at the start. But from 2-4 down in the third set, when play resumed after the second break for rain, the champion, serving and volleying more, revelled in the sunshine to uncork some brilliant winners even as Roddick failed to capitalise on the few openings he had.

``I got lucky today,'' said Federer, not long after sinking to his knees on hitting the last of his dozen aces on his first championship point. "He (Roddick) also deserves to win this title. I hope in the future we are going to play many more times here.''

Given that Federer is 22 and Roddick a year younger, this is one rivalry that has tremendous possibilities, although Roddick, never short of self-deprecating humour, said that it was still not a great rivalry between the two.

``I may have to start winning some of them to call it a rivalry,'' said the U.S. Open champion. From Federer's point of view, the fact that he managed to dig deep and meet the demands of the occasion after a disastrous start and stuttering mid-match play was, in itself, a significant achievement.

The momentum — if you can call it that in a match where until then neither player was able to stamp his authority — was with the American when rain arrived a second time, as Roddick was up 4-2 in the third set.

But during the rest of the match, the American had just fleeting chances as Federer broke back to 4-4 and then dominated the tiebreak with some spectacular shotmaking, closing it out with an exquisite backhand pass.

With Federer dealing with his serves with greater confidence, Roddick struggled to hold on to his service games early in the fourth set but himself had a chance or two on the Swiss player's serves.

Finally, Roddick lost serve in the seventh game rather tamely and from there it was a question of time.

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