Roger Federer Wins 2009 Wimbledon Championship

Charlie Klein

In the most utterly titanic Wimbledon final in recent memory, Roger Federer won his 15th major tennis championship over Andy Roddick today in London. The match was four hours and 18 minutes

“Sorry Pete; I tried to hold him off,” said Roddick to Sampras who had flown in on a red-eye from Los Angeles to attend the final. Federer surpassed Sampras' record for career grand slam wins with his 15th today.

“It was a crazy match with an unbelievable end, and my head is still spinning,” Federer said in his post-match remarks to the Centre Court crowd. “But it’s an unbelievable moment in my career.”

Many experts and non-experts gave Roddick a minimal chance at defeating Federer and justifiably so. Federer is one of the greatest tennis players of all-time and is still playing at just as high of a level as he was when he won his first slam in 2003 on the very same court. Roddick had not won a grand slam since 2003 when he won the U.S. Open. Michael Kaye, voice of the Yankees on the YES Network, who is not a tennis expert, gave Roddick zero chance of winning Wimbledon on ESPN's Sportsreporters this morning. How wrong was he?

Not only did Roddick have a chance at winning, he should have won the match. Roddick should have been two sets ahead of Federer and yet was unable to finish him off when he had the chance. At the end of the match one could tell that Roddick just did not have enough in the tank to finish off the greatest tennis player of all-time.

From a personal perspective, I watched the fifth set at work at the Nationals team store. I had turned on the match when I got into work at eleven am and then proceeded to go about my business. It was not until later when we had customers in the store did I notice the throng of about 20 people in the back of the store who were all standing around the television I had left on. Andy Roddick had taken Roger Federer five sets. I could not believe what I was watching. One person who was standing next to me could not believe that I was rooting for Roddick. He says to me, "Federer is the greatest of all-time, why aren't you rooting for greatness?" I told him, "Roddick is American."

For me I have never classified myself as a tennis fan. I grew up seeing Sampras and Agassi dominate the major grand slam titles and became accustomed with the "fact" that America produced the best tennis players. Then when Sampras and Agassi called it quits America was suddenly not on par with the rest of the world's talent. Andy Roddick was labelled, fairly or unfairly, the saviour of American tennis and we all expected similar achievements from him. I understand Britain's frustration with the fact that a Brit has not won their championship in the Open era, but to me it has been almost as frustrating that an American had not seriously challenged on the grass court that it dominated. Watching Roddick's performance from my own American perspective made me prouder to be an American than watching fireworks on the Mall in D.C.

The Times of London commented,

"Can you imagine watching this if you were an American, on the famed Breakfast at Wimbledon programme on which these stars were weaned? Long after the waffles and blueberries had been digested, it became Lunchtime at Wimbledon and was heading towards High Tea at Wimbledon when their boy’s courageous, utterly courageous, resilience was broken."

Andy Roddick is our boy. As much as the tennis universe has become Nadal-Federer-centic, there are other players who are right there with them in terms of skill. People forget that before Federer took the tennis world by storm that Andy Roddick was once the No. 1 player in the world. Roddick was the youngest American to achieve that ranking since the computer ranking system began in 1973. The Times of London continued,

"Not even in New York, at home, where he won his ground-breaking first grand-slam title in 2003, had the crowd reacted to him so. He rose and applauded them back. One hoped that at home, the Americans were raising their chilled beers to him. He had been heroic, he had been human, he had given all he had."

When his energy was completely spent, our boy walked over and collapsed in a chair. At first the crowd erupted with chants of "Roger, Roger" for the man who had just made them all witnesses to history, but also chanted "Roddick, Roddick" in respect for the American's unbelievable effort. In the end, the 2009 edition of the Wimbledon Championship had two winners. Anyone ask where Rafael Nadal was when this final had ended? Surely not. Maybe I should buy a ticket for the next final.