Sports - Tennis #18: Because we love the new Centre Court roof at Wimbledon! - Page 19

Uh Blah · 07-06-2009, 06:43 AM

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He played so well today and if he had converted on those set points in the second set, the outcome would`ve been different

I was thinking the same thing after going back and watching on my dvr. I actually started the recording right as he had taken a 6-2 lead in the 2nd set tie break. My recording ended just in time to see the game end. At 6-5 he had a volley that he just whacked way out of bounds when he had plenty of court to play with and would've gone up 2 sets to 0.

I kinda wish they would go to a tie breaker for the final set. I mean these guys serves are so good that it's kinda boring to watch. Honestly I kept zipping through the entire recoding as I saw each serve being won easily. I'd slow down on the rare occasion it went to duece, but I can remember only a handful of times throughout the match that even happened. So for a game that had the most sets ever it wasn't even the longest game because each serve was won with relative ease.

OTH_Leyton_4eva · 07-06-2009, 07:13 AM

thanks for andy twitter! he's definitely going to be back! and i expect making a huge run at us open!

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Originally Posted by Uh Blah (View Post)

I kinda wish they would go to a tie breaker for the final set. I mean these guys serves are so good that it's kinda boring to watch. Honestly I kept zipping through the entire recoding as I saw each serve being won easily. I'd slow down on the rare occasion it went to duece, but I can remember only a handful of times throughout the match that even happened. So for a game that had the most sets ever it wasn't even the longest game because each serve was won with relative ease.

that's where i have to disagree maybe because i've watched andy since i was 12, he was the one that got me into tennis, and watching that final set where andy had to hold 11 straight serves or the match would have been over, to me it was anything but boring!

**|so alive|** · 07-06-2009, 09:23 AM

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Federer only needed one championship point, which tells you everything.

He also only managed to break Roddick that one time, which tells me everything.

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Honestly I kept zipping through the entire recoding as I saw each serve being won easily

Maybe if you saw it live

I know I couldn't even get up to pee until there was the 2 minute break

STRAWBERRYFIELDS4 · 07-06-2009, 01:09 PM

MOST heartbreaking tennis final I've ever seen I really felt for Andy, classy player, I almost cried at the end.

**|so alive|** · 07-06-2009, 04:31 PM

I cried all of yesterday and even some today

this has been the most heartbroken I have ever felt for any kind of sport.

***Catherine*** · 07-06-2009, 06:10 PM

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He also only managed to break Roddick that one time, which tells me everything.

Yep, that when push came to shove, in the biggest moment of the match, it was Federer that prevailed.

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I cried all of yesterday and even some today this has been the most heartbroken I have ever felt for any kind of sport.

While I obviously dont agree with your assessment of the match, I fully understand your emotions. I bawled and bawled at last years final. I think I was in a state of mourning for weeks, actually

It doesnt happen often with sports, but combine Tennis, Wimbledon and Roger? It wasnt pretty.

**NikNak** · 07-06-2009, 06:51 PM

One of the best tennis matches I've ever seen! Andy played his ass off, but still came up short. So freaking heartbreaking. I wanted it so bad for him.

Congrats to Roger, though.

**JustMe2000** · 07-07-2009, 07:11 AM

Sad news. French tennis player Mathieu Montcourt has passed away. He was just 24.

Ms X · 07-07-2009, 09:50 AM

Yay I'm so pleased that Federer has won

What an awesome match and I do feel really bad for Andy, he played amazing. However for me, I still think Fed was the better player that day. I don't know, it felt like Andy just couldn't convert when he needed to and Fed eventually took advantage of that.
But no doubt, that was the best match I've ever seen Roddick play and I feel sad for him because he was so close.
As a Fed fan though, I'm very happy

OTH_Leyton_4eva · 07-07-2009, 10:32 AM

soo sad about mathieu

24 is wayyyy too young! he had his entire life ahead of him

**Hot Rod** · 07-07-2009, 11:10 AM

Yeah such a sad loss for his family, friends and the French.

ETA: Here are some pics from the Team USA and Russia press conferences.

P Mac going with the unshaven look

along with James.

Nice to see the Russians in good spirits, especially Marat.

chemistry86 · 07-08-2009, 12:14 AM

I felt bad for Andy BEFORE the ceremony for when they got their trophies. I thought it was ridiculous of him when Roger said he knows how Andy felt and Andy got in a swipe about how "Roger had already won five times before." Well tough beans, go back to the drawing board and try again next year, you didnt win because you fell short

No offense to any Andy fans, lol. Though I do think he played extremely well, he had Roger on defense a lot of the times. I think Andy's weak point is that he doesnt know how to rally. He has a wicked serve and that really helped him in this game but its not enough lol.

Avatar · 07-08-2009, 04:47 AM

This is a well-written op-ed... like this part:

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When it ended, Roddick looked like a broken man. And I could feel that pain with him -- couldn't we all? He was damned good. He was probably better than he had ever been in his life. And he wasn't quite good enough. Isn't that the saddest thing about sports? Isn't that the feeling that we all have at that point when we realize that we won't play big league ball, we won't be an NFL starting quarterback, we won't be on the 18th green putting to win the Masters? ...

Roddick stared out at the court, and he seemed to be on that aqueduct between crying and bravado, and then he said a few words -- congratulated Federer, thanked the fans, all that. Then Federer, trying to be a gentleman like always, tried to compare Roddick's feelings of loss to his own one year earlier when he had lost to Nadal. Roddick was not having any of it: "Yeah," he said, "but you had already won five times." Federer smiled and repeated the line without a terrible amount of sympathy. There was no way Federer could understand.

But I felt like I did understand. I really like Andy Roddick now. On Sunday at Wimbledon, he offered that rare fan feeling: He made me feel like we had been through something together. Roddick is still 26, and he still has that serve, and he will probably win a lot more money and big championships -- he still might win Wimbledon someday. Then again, he might not. I thought of this conversation I had with a coach once. I asked him if he believed there were lessons to be learned in losing.

"Yeah," he said. "Get better."

And I wish I would asked him then if there were lessons to be learned if you couldn't get better, if you had been your very best and that still was not good enough. I suspect his answer would have been simple: "Yeah," he would have said. "Get used to it. Because that's life."

**|so alive|** · 07-08-2009, 07:20 AM

Wow, I'm so excited to see Marat.. I'm going to the game on Saturday so unfortunately I'll only get to see him at the players introduction

Brucas4life · 07-08-2009, 07:57 AM

Thanks for posting that Dan.

I don't think Roddick's loss this year is really comparable to Federer's last year. Roddick has never won Wimbledon, he's been in that final twice before and lost both times, it would have been the biggest moment of his career or at least on a par with his win at the US Open. Federer has won Wimbledon countless times now and whilst it obviously means a lot to win as it does to any player, I thinking winning Wimbledon that first time will always be that extra bit special. So he didn't win it one year, it wasn't the end of the world, it wasn't like he felt he was never going to get another chance to win Wimbledon or that he would ever get his hands on the trophy. It's a completely different feeling, how can you compare narrowingly missing out on your first ever Wimbledon trophy on your third try, to missing out on your 6th Wimbledon win.

And for me another huge difference is that last year Federer lost to the better player. Yes they were both amazing and there was little between them, but Nadal just had that extra edge and on the day simply was the better out of the two. For me this year Roddick was on the whole the better player. I think it's hurts a lot more when you know that trophy should have been yours, that you gave it absolutley everything you had and for the majority of the match, in fact apart from the last 2 games, you were the better player, and yet you walk away as a runner up. It's different from when you know you've beaten by the better player, that they just had the edge over you.

What happened this year was that it became more of an endurance test in the 5th set, and Roddick having played 4 set and 5 set matches that week was obviously the more likely to be broken. It's a shame. Yes Federer broke him when it mattered but for me it was more a case of Roddick losing it than Federer winning.

I just hope Roddick goes on to win something as he looked absolutely heartbroken, and I fear that next year's Wimbledon is only going to be tougher for him, what with Nadal hopefully being back, and Murray is bound to be stronger, so I fear that maybe he's lost his best shot at winning the tournament.