Andy, You're a Star

I don't follow professional tennis that closely. Baseball is my main sports devotion. But I try to always catch at least part of Wimbledon, especially the men's final. The time difference makes this a bit tricky, as it's 6a.m. here in Las Vegas when the Championship Match begins in London. Las Vegas has it's own claim to tennis fame. Andre Agassi is a Vegas native and still lives here with his wife and fellow champion Steffi Graf. The Agassis do loads of work for the community. Still, Vegas is a long way from London.

Last year's Wimbledon final, won by Rafael Nadal in the dusk of early evening after several rain delays and an epic 5 set match against Roger Federer, is well documented. I'm reading the book on the match by L. Jon Wertheim right now on my Kindle (It's called "Strokes of Genius: Federer, Nadal, and the Greatest Match Ever Played.") I remember watching the match, on and off between rain delays, sleepy in my bed, and then with the Mets game on the computer on the other side of the room. The Mets actually started and finished their game that day before the Wimbledon final was completed. A marathon day for all involved. I don't remember what the Mets did that day. But I certainly remember the tension and the greatness of that tennis match. Sometimes that happens.

And today was another day like that. This time the amazing match ended just as the Mets were beginning their lackluster day against the Phillies. So there wasn't the division of attention that was necessary last year. I again woke late, tuning in sleepily after being up half the night with our dog Miracle and her fireworks anxiety. It was already in the fourth set. But I'm glad I got there when I did. Andy Roddick was our guy this time against Federer.

Tennis being an idividual sport makes it different from baseball in that there is no team as such. Yes, there are doubles teams, and Davis Cup teams. But in the Grand Slam tournaments, the singles players are on their own. You have your favorites. I remember when Agassi made his amazing final run in the U.S. Open. in 2006. He was injured but he battled and the crowd was definitely behind him. This year's Wimbledon Semi-final saw Britain's star Andy Murray with great home country support from the crowd, as he lost a tough match to Roddick.

Now in the final it was Roddick vs. Federer, the 5 time champion. Roddick had met Federer in the Wimbledon final before, back in 2004 and 2005 and came up short each time. Their last match up in 2005 was an easy 3 set win for Federer. So of course you have to root for Andy this time. At least to make the match more competitive, if not to have a real chance to win it. Yes, the American player got my support, but not just because I'm American (and I did talk about the national pride in watching sports in yesterday's entry). But in tennis you really think of the player as an individual, and here I rooted for Andy because he had worked so hard to get back to the final. He did everything he could to give himself a chance to win it. I'm a big fan of Federer also. I mean, he's got to be the greatest player of all time, considering what he's done. So he's not the enemy. He never has been. I cheered for him in the final against Nadal last year, and felt bad for him when he lost it. This year Federer was just coming off his first French Open win, and was going for his 15th Grand Slam title, to surpass Pete Sampras. He was making history and you can't help but want to see that too. I just didn't want it to be too easy for him. And fortunately for me, and for tennis as a whole, it was a great competitive match. It went 5 sets. And the fifth set took 30 games for Federer to finally come out on top. Roddick held his serve in every game until the very last.

The sports media is on top of reporting this story, despite the fact that it's not front page news in the U.S. (I had to make a concerted effort to check the results and find out the match-ups on line, it was strange.). So I don't feel compelled here to give a detailed account of the match. Suffice it to say that I was glad to have seen it. Andy and Roger both played their hearts out. And Roger came out on top today. The history and the glory are his. But to Andy I say, Well done! You did us all proud :)