Federer vs. Roddick. Tennis at its BEST!
Federer won it in three sets, but that doesn't do the match justice at all. The first two sets were decided in tie breakers and there wasn't even a break point opportunity until about halfway through the second set. Adam and I watched the first set together and then he went off to bed and I slogged through until the end -- although, I did watch some of the Tim Gunn show during the third set (my disclaimer) and actually missed most of the game when Federer finally broke Andy.
Here are some of our observations:
Jimmy Connors, tennis legend and Roddick's coach, looked great in his suit sitting in the stands.
It was such a treat to have Andre Agassi in the commentator booth! It took some time to get used to sound of his voice (and I thought he was a little too quiet sometimes and needed to speak louder), but he made some very insightful comments. It was a great addition to an already great night of tennis a welcome break from hearing the dimwit who normally sits with McEnroe (he was there, just didn't talk as much).
Early on, Agassi mentioned that Roddick would have to be careful to get points over with quickly because he wouldn't have a good chance winning points on long rallies against Federer. We both liked that comment and Adam started keeping track (of points that went to 6 hits or more). In the first set, tracking points that went over the net six times, Federer won 15 points to Roddick's 5. Andre's point was right on the mark.
I wasn't a big fan of both players dressed in black. Made it a little hard to keep track of them.... and I HATE that Andy wears shirts that are a bit too big, so he is always pulling up the sleeves between points - maybe that's just a nervous habit and not a reflection of his shirt size.
We noticed that Roddick was running around his backhand quite a bit. It didn't seem that he had a lot of unforced errors on that side, so it was a bit unusal. Interesting to see that although Roddick is the one known for his heavy serving, it was actually Federer that had more aces. It was nice to see Andy coming to net a fair amount. Shocked at times, by the passing shots Federer was able to get past him - the man is amazing! A fascinating Federer statistic: during the second set, he won 94% of the points played off his second serve. That's insane....
Neither Adam nor I are very big fans of Roddick's style of play. Relying on a big serve to pull out victories may make you win a lot of games, but it isn't terrbily exciting to watch. And, he's been over hyped - He's only won the Open once people! Back in 03. He's 1-14 now in head-to-heads with Federer, I liked his comment that can't really be considered a revilry (sp?) until he starts winning some head-to-heads. Very respectful of Federer's success and not egocentric. Roddick, is unquestionably a tremendous asset to professional tennis. He is a good sport, very modest, pleasant to ball boys, umpires, other players - just an all around good guy. In stark contrast to the Williams sisters, who are at the other extreme.
Adam noticed this, and I can't believe I never realized it - Both players, but Federer especially, have freakishly wimpy left arms in comparison to their muscular right arm - they almost looked deformed.OK - so my comments are a bit all over the place this morning, but hey, I didn't get much sleep from staying up to watch the match!
Here are some statistics from the NYTimes Open Blog: Roddick had the most aces he’d ever served against Federer, 14, and had 42 winners and 24 unforcced errors, many of them when it was all but over. He even served 71 percent for the entire match. But Federer had some pretty good numbers, too: 15 aces (yes, he again out-aced him), 48 winners against 18 unforced errors. Neither player served a double fault.
