A few things this week have made me think of tipping points. Moments in peoples lives that are so close to being something amazing and then fall short. Such is the profundity of the moments it always makes me question; what could have been?
This question will be reverberating around Andy Roddick's head since late Sunday evening when he lost in a marathon final set to Roger Federer. The final will mainly be remembered as Federer broke Pete Sampras' record of 14 Grand Slams and earned his deserved place in the history of Sporting greatness. Despite this Andy Roddick pushed Federer so close when many, myself included, had haughtily predicted a win in 3 sets for the Swiss Maestro. How sweet it would have been for Roddick to finally win Wimbledon when his recent form in the Majors had been waning. How vindicated he would have felt after having the misfortune of being at his peak when the greatest player ever to have lived was at his. Roddick's huge serve, natural athleticism and competitiveness would have more than likely ensured him to be the best grass court player of most generations barring those containing Bjorn Borg and his eventual nemesis Roger Federer. Having been beaten pretty easily in the previous two finals that he reached it didn't take a lot of bottle to predict a similar result this time around. But Roddick proved the doubters wrong and took Federer all the way and matched him until the 30th game of the 5th set.
In the end it was probably Roddick's fitness that was his undoing. He suffered from contesting some epic five set matches against the likes of Hewitt and he was also taken to GB's Andy Murray. If he had just managed to drag himself across the line against Roger Federer maybe it would have signalled a last hurrah or even a late career Renaissance. Either way Sunday's match was a tipping point for any Roddick, a tipping point that he was just unable to roll over.
No comments:
Post a Comment