London, July 06: We thought we had seen everything when Roger Federer lost in the greatest final in Wimbledon history 12 months ago, but the Swiss returned to Centre Court last night to emerge triumphant after another extraordinary ending to the world’s most famous tennis tournament.
Winning the title he needed to beat Pete Sampras’s record of 14 Grand Slam victories, Federer beat Andy Roddick 5-7, 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 16-14 after a final set of almost unbearable tension. Roddick had been unbroken in all his previous 37 service games until the American miss-hit a forehand on the final point to give Federer the record he has pursued for so long.
At four hours and 18 minutes the match was half an hour shorter than last year’s final, when Rafael Nadal ended Federer’s hopes of winning a sixth successive Wimbledon title, but it rewrote plenty of other records. In terms of the number of games (77) it was the longest final in Grand Slam history, beating the total of 71 at the Australian Open in 1927, and featured the longest final set, outstripping the 11-9 finale at the French Open, in 1927.
–Agencies