Perry, Bjorg, Sampras and now Federer?
July 3, 2005So 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.
i think federer is hugely overated. I think he is mentally fragile and whenever an opponent is able to match him for skill his character shows up his insecurities and weaknesses. Its just that his skill is far superior to other players out there. I think its sad to see no real competition that he has to face. Its more a problem of the lack of proper coaching these days. It seems they just teach youngsters to slam the ball from the baseline rather than a more effective all court game. Also the two handed backhand has singularly reduced the effectiveness of half the potential greats out there. I think maybe a redesign of coaching is required. Start with kids of 12-13 when they can actually hold a proper tennis racket rather than the oversize monstrosities that i see yound kids with. teach them a all court game with some skill at the net. then we may see some real tennis rather than ball bashing.
Comment by ram — July 3, 2005 @ 12:09 pm
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Pingback by I’ve made a Huge Mistake :: The Finals ends in a …. wait for it …. a tie :: July :: 2005 — July 3, 2005 @ 10:04 pm
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