Sports : life magnified

When Roger Federer cried after sitting on his courtside chair after having won Wimbledon, that for me was the moment of the Championships this year.

Boris Becker on BBC Sport:

It was clear to everyone how much overhauling Roddick, and the championship, meant to him when he cried as he took the title for a third time.

He cried like a little child winning his first big tournament and it was so nice to see.

Federer is calm, Federer is composed while on court. It shows how much he has disciplined himself to play on court. He is composed because he has a game plan. He is calm because he has to relax and play if he wants to execute his game plan as perfectly as possible.

To me one point was very revealing in the match. Federer had not hit a particularly strong shot. So a possible winner from Roddick was on the offing. What does Roger do? He takes a calculated risk and approaches the net and hits the volley while on the move to get the point.

Pure brilliance.

Bhupathi and Pierce winning the mixed doubles title has been a fair reward for Mary Pierce for he improvement she has shown. One cannot but feel joy for Pierce. Bhupathi is such a solid doubles player which shows in the fact that he keeps winning grand slam doubles titles.

It was the last match in Wimbledon this year and Allan Mills just retires after 23 years, finally hangs up his boots. Well done Mr. Mills and a well deserved rest too.

This has indeed been a memorable Wimbledon. Venus Williams’ triumph, Sharapova’s performance and her golden shoes, Federer adding further pages to his story, the wheel chair tennis coming to Wimbledon, McEnroe and Navratilova still slogging it out and many more moments to cherish.

So we wait 50 weeks for strawberry, cream, the green grass and England All Tennis and Croquet Club and the magic of Wimbledon.

Federer disposed off the number 2 ranked Hewitt in the semis with comfort and the final, if any thing, looked a much more of a comfortable win for Federer. Now Roddick has not lost a single match in the past two and half years on grass except the 3 times on grass including today. So he is the indisputable no. 2 on grass.

What is astonishing is how much of a gap there is between the number 2 and number 1. Roddick certainly reckons the same :

He’s become such a complete player, even since he beat me in the semi-finals two years ago. He’s improved so much since then.

Federer is calm, he is relaxed and has all the strokes. There are already murmurs of comparison between Sampras and Federer. Sampras had to deal with great tennis players on grass – Becker, Ivanisevic, Agassi (no muck on grass), Rafter, Krajicek and others I might have left out.

Federer has had Hewitt, Roddick and no one really. Safin hasn’t ever been comfortable on grass but he showed some comfort level this time around atleast. Maybe he can improve. Ancic is a better hope but till he or any one else does show the required mettle, every thing is speculation.

McEnroe rightly says that the two may be compared after Federer wins as many Wimbledon titles as Sampras. Amritraj is more generous and says that he should win atleast half the titles. So we lay the comparisons to rest.

Coming back to this year’s Wimbledon, BBC Sport has an article on wheel chair tennis in Wimbledon this year. Certainly a positive addition.

From BBC Sport:

Although there have been exhibition games at Wimbledon over the past couple of years, this is the first competitive wheelchair tournament at the venue and the first grass-court tournament in the world

And the rules are the same except a slight alteration the ball can bounce twice - although the first bounce must be within the court confines.

The roof will be set in Wimbledon finally in 2009. Amritraj points out that the roof should be allowed on all courts or to all matches in a specific round. Else it is different conditions for different people which easily isn’t the way to go.

Wimbledon is not over yet as Bhupathi and Pierce have won their mixed doubles match and are playing the final in a center court far more empty obviously. So if you have not managed to get a seat in center court all fortnight and still wish to do so, now is probably the easiest opportunity. It is also one of the last times you will be able to see proper doubles rule scoring in a tennis match. The scoring system changing to reduced games in sets and reduced matches is madness.

Shoaib Akhtar has gained back the confidence of the PCB after abandonment from the squad for the tour of West Indies. The fitness level of Shoaib was questioned by Woolmer, the commitment in doubt. Shoaib has since then come with strong remarks of how he wants to give his best against the English.

After not being included in the 17 people who were initially given the Central contract, the latest news certainly comes as a new formed faith of the PCB. The contract is only for 6 months though. The last 6 months or so have shown Shoaib he is not indespensible and the team is always larger than the player.

More media news for what he does on field rather than off it in the future? Only time will tell.

So we are all set now for the finals. Roddick versus Federer. Second year in a row.

From the Wimbledon official site:

Should he fulfill his personal pledge, Federer will join an elite group of m`n to have won teree Wimbledon titles in a row. Both Bjorn Borg and Pete Sampras(have scored the hat-trick; Borg in fact won the Gentlemen’s Singles five times in a row (1976-80) while Sampras managed the feat twice (1993-95 and 1997-2000). Prior to the open era, the great Fred Perry won three on the trot from 1934-36.

Federer is on the brink of history and the question on every one’s minds is can Roddick stop the man who has looked invincible on grass for the past three years to create his most memorable moment in tennis yet or will he be just be another road in Federer’s path to greatness.

BBC Sport gives some relevent stats. Federer has a 8-1 record against Roddick, has 29 career titles to Roddick’s 18 and has won 4 slams compared to Roddicks lone US Open triumph. Roddick has been eliminated the last two times in Wimbledon by the eventual champion, Federer himself.

Federer has won, hold your breath, 20 consecutive finals he has appeared in. Surely dwarfs the recent run of the Australian one day cricket team in finals, put to an end by a tie yesterday. Federer is also chasing Bjorg’s record of consecutive wins on grass and no one would be surprised if he beats that mark eventually.

In this Wimbledon itself, Federer has lost just 1 set (7-6) to Nicolas Kiefer. Roddick on the other hand has had a rough road, stretched to 5 versus unfancied Bracialli in round 2, Sebastian Grosjean in the quarters and 4 sets against Thomas Johansson.

The match to watch first will be the mixed doubles semi finals on court 1. Jonas Bjorkman and Lisa Raymond versus Mahesh Bhupathi and Mary Pierce. An Indian winning grandslam ‘doubles’ title would be a happy thing but why I have keener interest in this is as it can lead to a delightful win for Mary Pierce and even though a mixed doubles victory is nothing compared to a singles victory it will be sweet if she does manage to win the mixed doubles this year in Wimbledon.

On another note, Todd Woodbridge, one of the most prolific doubles players and very much under rate singles player retires. ATPtennis has a nice interview and a PDF stats file on the man. It was great to see him play but I would have liked him to concentrate more on the singles but you cant have the best of both worlds in tennis I guess.