All great and honorable actions are accompanied with great difficulties." - William Bradford
"How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours." - Wayne Dyer
ROGER FEDERER
Roger the Great
By winning Wimbledon 2009, his 15th Grand Slam title, Roger Federer beats Pete Sampras’ record.
ROGER FEDERER’S leap of joy at the moment of his victory at Wimbledon 2009 sent him soaring into another world. This win, his 15th in Grand Slam finals, took him past Pete Sampras’ record of 14. In his wake, Federer leaves a trail of broken records too numerous to recount. A buoyant Federer wore to the post-match news conference a T-shirt that read “There is no finish line”, and Sampras remarked that Federer could go on to win 17 or even 18 Grand Slam titles. If that happens, Federer will possibly stay in his celestial orbit forever.
The four-hour-18-minute final featured the longest deciding set in the 122-year-old history of the Grand Slams. Unlike last year’s final between Federer and Rafael Nadal, where breathtaking baseline exchanges made it the best final ever, the 2009 final was service-dominated and proved to be a test of stamina and a titanic battle of wills. If Andy Roddick, leading 6-2 in the second-set tie-breaker, had won one single point of the four set points he held, it would have given him a two-sets-to-love lead and pushed Federer into a hole almost impossible to clamber out of. Most heartbreaking was the high backhand volley Roddick misjudged because of a “gusting wind” when Federer was off court. Also, just one ace from Roddick in the tie-breaker would have done the trick. But it was not to be. The toe-to-toe service slugfest in the final set went on until 14-15 before the rugged American wilted, lost his service and made three unforced errors owing to fatigue.
It must be said that Federer had more than his share of luck. His victory in the French Open and Nadal’s absence because of injury boosted his confidence and cleared his path to glory.
In the avalanche of accolades that swamped the tennis world and the “greatest ever” tag endorsed by Sampras, Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg, all legends of the game, Roddick’s performance was lost. Laver, however, said it was better not to dwell too much on the greatest-of-all-time debate and to let two vastly different eras be singularly defined. “Live in the here and the now,” he said, a view with which I agree. Sampras and Borg may well have felt the same but perhaps could not express themselves for fear of being misunderstood.
source: Frontline
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