Since the retirement of tennis great Pete Sampras, it almost seems like American tennis has gone down over the past couple of years, holded on its feat only by the old foe of the likes of Agassi, and the young steamy Roddick. Andre has shown ocassional glimses of the flashes of genius that he produced during the 90's, but the same fire power is not there. He has played too much tennis in his career and now his old bones have got to surrender to the young lads of this 21st century tennis era where raquet producers have bludgeoned some unbelievable string supremacy in their raquet productions.
Sampras ruled the grass court for 7 years where he produced some finest tennis ever seen in the gentlemen's game, and presided over the number one rankings for record number of weeks. He was unbeatable for the time he played his serve-volley game. It was routine for Sampras on his favorite turf; big serve and gentle volley. His movement around the net was arguably the best ever, perfect for a grass court tennis. Until young Swiss Federer arrived in the scene to clinch an epic against Sampras in that battle where Sampras afterwards said, "Watch out for Federer, he is going to be the next world number one". And oh boy! does Sampras's words echo clear now. Crystal! I must say, and this boy Federer is playing at a different level then anyone else.
His closes rival Roddick has lost 9 of his outings with Federer and has won just only once in the Masters at Canada, seems almost a long time back. He has a big serve and a great baseline game that matches the best in the world. His athleticism around the court is classic and his volley game is superior as well. Although I must admit Roddick is not a great baseline player, rather a power player who relies on his serve more than anything else, it was not much of a challenge for Roger, who once again proved why he is the world number one in today's Wimbledon final, clinching his third successive title. The first set was routine for Federer, broke Roddick and Roddick simply had no answer to Federer's ability around the court. The second set, Roddick finally broke Federer and was looking almost certain to clinch the second set, when nature came to Federer's rescue.
Play halted for almost half an hour when rain drizzled the centre court at the All-England club. Roddick was serving for 5-2 up in the second set. When they got back, the very next game, Federer immediately got the break back, halting Roddick's momentum, and somehow the world number 1 got his rhythm back to take the set to a tie break, where he clinched the second set to take a 2 set to love lead. The third set started with both players holding their serve. at 4-4 in the second set, Roddick was serving for 5-4 up, but he big serving American let himself down with an error prone game, and you cannot do that against Roger. He will drain you down, thats exactly what hapenned. A magnificent back hand pass cross court gave Roger the game and a chance to serve out the match and the championship. The world number 1 made no mistake, once again playing routine game and clinching his third wimbledon title in a row.
A performance of epic calibre, Andy could only admire the genius at work. Federer is no doubt the one to beat at the US Open. He will come up against some superior hard court tennis players like Hewitt, Roddick and Safin, but this young genius has just got that extra bit of skill to take the game to a very different level.
.png)
