Federer Wins Third Crown

Sunday, July 3, 2005

Roger Federer SUI (1) 6 7(7) 6

Andy Roddick USA (2) 2 6(2) 4


Roger Federer claimed his place in tennis history when he won his third straight Men's Singles title at The Championships by defeating Andy Roddick 6-2, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 in one hour and 41 minutes. The 23-year-old Swiss has now won 36 consecutive matches on grass and this brilliantly worked victory was even clearer cut than his four-set win over the American a year ago.

As Roddick, a sporting and gallant loser, admitted: "He has become such a complete player." A truer sentence was never spoken of the astonishing Federer, who buried his face in a towel to conceal his tears of joy at his achievement of joining such modern-era greats as Fred Perry, Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras in collecting a Wimbledon hat-trick. "And I hope it is not going to stop at three," he told the Centre Court crowd after collecting the golden trophy from the Duke of Kent.

The outcome of this match was never in doubt from the opening moments. Federer went into the final leading Roddick by eight victories to one in their career head-to-head record and it was rapidly clear why. Roddick, the second seed, held serve twice in a crash-bang start to the match in which only one point was conceded on serve in the first five games.

Then Federer struck. Roddick fended off danger by saving one break point with a full-blooded forehand winner but when Federer conjured a second opening, that Roddick forehand let him down, projecting the ball over the baseline. Federer cemented the advantage by holding serve to love. With the 22-year-old American struggling to stem the flood tide, the champion reached set point as Roddick sent a forehand wide. Federer clinched the first set in just 22 minutes with a backhand cross court which, although not cleanly hit, fell in for a winner.

Roddick was faced with digging himself out of a hole earlier than he had expected. To his credit, his response was positive. He broke Federer for what was to be the only time in the match to lead 2-1 in the second set as the Swiss dumped a forehand volley into the netting.

The American's hopes of holding on to the second set lasted for only three games before Federer broke back, the brilliance and pace of his ground strokes forcing Roddick into error. To his credit, Roddick battled marvellously against the flood tide, even saving two set points at 4-5 and taking the set into a tie-break.

This was the time for Federer to put his foot on the pedal and he duly did so, taking a 3-0 lead with a double break of serve. He conceded only two points in the tie-break to move two sets clear after one hour and 11 minutes, at which point rain forced the players off court for 25 minutes.

When they returned, the man British Davis Cup player John Lloyd calls "the only complete tennis player on the planet" was rapidly back into his stride on a court he rightly feels is his home. A determined Roddick traded strokes and points for the opening six games, but any hope that he might take this final into a fourth set was wrecked when Federer broke serve for a 4-3 lead with one of his specialty "miracle" shots, a stunning backhand cross-court winner.

Serving for the match at 5-4, Federer emphasised his genius with two aces, his 10th and 11th, and closed it out on his first match point with a service winner. He fell forward on to his knees and then rolled on to his back. The best player in the world had gained a deserved reward.