Missed It By That Much

Andy Roddick was slapped around by Fate once again at the Wimbledon final. In several other eras, he’d be a very, very dominant player, but he’s had the misfortune of being in his prime during the Roger Federer Era. He doesn’t even get to be second bannana because of Rafael Nadal’s emergence either. And honestly Roddick isn’t even third consistently because the no-names have gotten way better since Pete Sampras’ time. Roddick’s even made three Wimbledon finals…and lost to Federer every time. This year’s was the only one that was close.

Oh sure, Roddick played his balls off in the final on Sunday, but he couldn’t beat history, fate, skill, talent, AND Roger Federer all in the same match. Roddick made miracle shot after miracle shot and didn’t have his serve broken until the last game of the match, but you knew it was going to hell sooner or later. And once the fifth set came around, there was no way Federer was going to lose. He got into some trouble a couple of times, but blasted his way out each time. By the end, Roddick was totally helpless.

And all the while, I found myself rooting for him anyway. I had a very strong feeling his efforts were for naught, but I wanted to see him beat Roger in front of Pete Sampras and everyone else. I even convinced myself it was going to happen at a couple different points. I mean come on, an American in the final the day after July 4? Too good to be true. Which, it was (or wasn’t. I can never understand that saying). Hell, Roddick is so marginalized that this amazing final wasn’t even close to competing with last year’s Greatest Match Ever Played.

So Roger Federer is the champion of all championship winners of championships while Andy Roddick still has his one measly US Open title which he won in the pre-Federer era.

When everyone else is gushing about the greatness of Roger Federer and how amazing it is that he’s won 15 majors, remember Andy Roddick because for every truly great player, there are guys like him who are simply victims of their own limitations and the times they played in.

/joke about Roddick being the real winner because his wife is super hot.