DownSwinging.com

Nobody who watched the Men’s singles Final yesterday in SW19 can help but lament the eventual downfall of Andy Roddick, the world’s number 6, to top-ranked Roger Federer. Let’s get all of the obvious congratulations out of the way. Congrats Roger. Congrats on topping Pete Sampras for most grand slams won by a singles player, 15. Congrats on winning your 6th Wimbledon in 7 years. Congrats on playing a brand of tennis that resembles the play of a robot. You are clearly the best tennis player that has ever lived, and you handle it with astonishing humility. That aside, yesterday I felt the most disappointed I have ever felt, and probably will ever feel, at the end of a tennis match. This one was Roddick’s. I was certain, after seeing Roddick dispatch Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals, that this tournament could be a special one for the aging American. Sure he’d been here before, but his game seemed so much more solid. After hiring Larry Stefanki as his new coach last December, and supposedly handing all of the reigns over to the world-renowned trainer, Roddick’s one-dimensional game has suddenly seemed much stronger. His perennially weak backhand, looked like a strength at times, while his overpowering forehand and serve seemed more dominant than ever. Sure Federer was supposed to win, but that is not how the match played out.