Andy Roddick Must Hate His Parents
Why? Because they bore him in the era of Roger Federer. Five years earlier, or five years later, he might have half a dozen Grand Slam titles by now. He has lost in three Grand Slam finals — all to Federer. Tonight, he lost to his unbeatable nemesis once again, only this time in the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open. The first two sets couldn’t have been any closer, with no breaks on either man’s serve, and the unforced errors and winners being almost identical. Roddick was blasting his serve at 135 mph easily and murdering his foreheads as fast as he possibly could, fighting Federer tougher than anyone not named Nadal. There were no breaks on either man’s serve for the first two sets, but Roddick did have one break point that he squandered. Federer was just too damn good when it counted.
The man (android?) is just incredible to watch, reaching shots seemingly out of reach and hitting them back at humanly impossible angles. During the second tiebreak, Federer hit a backhand return on a 140 mph serve right back to Roddick’s feet. It was absolutely flithy. Roddick just shook his head in disbelief. So after those first two evenly matched battles, Federer was up two sets to none with Roddick running out of gas and Federer hardly breaking a sweat. By the third set, he was mentally and physically drained, even if he did make it to deuce on one of Federer’s serving games. While the first two sets were won 7-6(7-5) and 7-6(7-4) by Federer, the third was won 6-2 after two breaks.
I can’t imagine how Roddick felt after the match. He played as well as I’ve ever seen him play. Federer didn’t even have one break point through the first two rounds. Just a few points swinging the other way in the tiebreaks and Roddick would’ve been up 2-0 instead of the other way around. But that’s why Federer is the most dominant athlete in sports right now, and almost inarguably the best tennis player of all-time. He gets it done when it counts. He just makes it look so goddamn effortless that it’s tough to admire him. I want to see him fight. This is the toughest match I’ve seen him play outside of the French Open and he still came away with a straight-set win. Djokovic is the only hope now. The prodigy who beat Federer, Nadal and Roddick in one tournament. Can he do it when it really counts, though? We will see. I hope he at least wins a fucking set for Christ’s sake.
Related posts:
Loading ...