Federer's 15th Slam - Where it was won and lost

Roger Federer overtook Pete Sampras' record for Grand Slam titles with a 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14 over Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon final on Sunday.

Roddick was a desperately unlucky loser. It was the American sixth seed who played the tennis on Sunday. Federer was a long way from his best, struggling, as Tim Henman repeated from the commentary box, to see and connect with the ball properly. The Swiss, unwilling to attack the ball early on during rallies, provided a display of counter-attacking effectiveness, if not the accustomed sublimity. Time and again, he waited for Roddick to take the initiative and attack, then picked him off.
It was an epic final, yet never really caught alight in terms of quality, largely because of the dominance of both players' serves. Roddick's serving prowess is plain for all to see, and to only be broken once by Roger Federer in five sets of tennis - to make it even more painful, the very final game of the match, his 15th service game of the deciding set - is testament to the level of tennis the underdog played. Federer's serve is an often underrated part of his game, however. It is his service accuracy and variety which is the key, opposed to Roddick's sheer power. The now six-time Wimbledon champion served 50 aces in total, the number of service winners improving into the fifth set as the American tired. Roddick runs hard every match he plays, but lacks acceleration and agility. He began to try and guess where Federer's serves were going in the fifth set, too often outwitted.
At 5-5 in the first set, Federer forced four break points on the Roddick serve, but the American survived and, as is so often the case after a player puts so much effort into breaking serve, the Swiss' own serve faltered, Roddick taking the set 7-5.
Roddick remained marginally the better play throughout the second set, storming to 6-2 in the tiebreak. The American seemed to assume the set was in the bag, carelessly allowing his opponent back in, before he shanked an easy backhand volley well wide. Federer won 6 points in a row to level the match. You don't see Federer fist-pumping in those situations, but displaying a strong, quiet determination.
Roddick picked himself up after that disappointment to level-peg in the third set, but the Swiss played a superb tiebreak to push himself infront. Roddick's 'breaker record is sensational, but Federer finds new levels under the greatest pressure. You wonder why he can't play at that level throughout - I bet he couldn't tell you himself. It's something subconscious that only the very best sportsmen have.
Roddick wouldn't lie down though, breaking Federer's serve for the second time in the third game of the fourth set, and serving out to make it two sets all.
The fifth set was epic, well over an hour long. Roddick had two nearly-Championship-points on Federer's serve at 8-8, but the Swiss again held strong under pressure and relentless aces allowed him to put pressure on Roddick. Serving first in the decider was a huge advantage for Federer, who, all the way through from 5-4, knew he was only four swings of the racket away from victory. Two mishits from the American at 13-12 allowed Federer to finally break serve and make history.

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Serena Williams' 'Are you looking at my titles?' t-shirt caused a bit of a buzz on the final weekend of Wimbledon. The younger of the Williams sisters now holds three of the four Grand Slam titles - US and Australian Opens and now Wimbledon - but will remain World No.2. The problems with women's tennis run a lot deeper than the bizarre ranking system on the WTA Tour, however. Wimbledon 2009 displayed a stunning gulf between the Williams sisters and the rest of the women's game, in which there is a startlingly lack of both top-level quality and depth. Only Russian Elena Dementieva tested the Americans, Serena surviving a match point to come through in their 2 hour 48 minute semi-final. On the other side of the draw, Venus, comfortably seen off by her little sister in the final, spanked World No.1 Dinara Safina 6-1 6-0. One game won by the World No.1. Embarassing for Safina and the women's game.