Roger Federer vs Andy Roddick — Wimbledon 2009 Final

return of serve

I’ll probably differ with many of what has been said. First I agree that Andy’s backhand was so much improved but I thought that Roger was tight throughout the whole match. This meant he could not move well and therefore could not play great shots. he just played the balls over the net and hoped that Andy would make unforced errors but unfortunately Andy was in no such mood. That’s why I think the game lasted longer than it did. Remember the 1st set at 5-5, Federer ,on any other day, would not make such mistakes.
In a nutshell I thought the idea of breaking the record and being on his own weighed heavily on him and could not therefore move well, play great shorts and return well. As someone has already said it is Roger’s return that was poor.

t whom this may be coner
i am not a profeffsion tennis playere, but i cant tell something was not quiete write with andy rodick and roger feddeer final, poor andy roddick roddick is fighting for his life for a grans slam why fderer wants 15 looke at the points in the 5 sets socre andy 14 federer 16 poiunts i think the points were raise higher so fedderr can win, they didnot want andy roddick to come home with the wimbdelon trophy, no rafael nadal this year beacuse of an injoury, evethime theire is a major, like wimbelon asuraiona open, french open, and the us open,if rafaek nadal or federer makes the final one or the other must win, like wimbdleon 2009, they wanted fedderr to win just so he can beat peter samrus record 14 majors, this was a we beit unfair to andy roddick fans and family, i thing it was andy serve, that was helding him back from coming home with that wimbdelon trhopey,he almost won, next year rafael nadal will be back aabd and federer will be defeated by another player, i hope this is roger federer last wimbdelon title don t have anything aginst him, but we will lket to see sombdoy new come home witl the wimbdelon trhoopey,it si ashamed it wasnt andy roddcik year, andy is getting alittle older it is goiong to be hard for him, this would of been his second major, will federr already has 15,lets hope thsi is roger federer last maojor.

Dunno if this has been mentioned, i just checked the stats from the atp website, and roger indeed had 127 first serves in. Don’t you think it’s a little misleading to bring up the 39% number there, considering you are just basically ignoring all second serves? It makes it look as if you’re saying that roger hit 127 serves in the match, when he actually hit close to 200. I know you’ve said at the start of your video that you were counting only first serves, but my question is why? As far as i can see, there’s no reason to exclude second serves from your statistic, and as i said, i believe that you mislead people that way.

Don’t get me wrong though, i quite agree with your analysis. The serve did incredible damage. And if you include the second serves into your percentage, you’ll get to about 25%, still a very high number considering the length of the match. And don’t forget, that number doesn’t include unreturned serves that don’t count as aces.

Roddick certainly struggled with Federer’s serve, but who wouldn’t?

This day, I remember Roger painting lines in both boxed like I’ve never seen him do. I mean he was really sharp and never followed any predicatble pattern.

But, you seem to act like it’s all Roddick’s fault. You have to consider many of his peers consider Federer has being the hardest server to read on the tour. Kickers, slices, topspin, twists, flat on lines and corners… All that he never changes much his swing. The ball is always at the same spot, he always goes the same… Like he doesn’t even change his motion at all. When you can notice what have changed, it’s already too late because you have to face an incoming ball. Never tips his opponent. This makes it tremendously hard to play. All you can do is keep guessing and watch the ball.

You said Roddick serve is better than Federer’s. I would hardly conceid Federer’s sevre as being lesser good. On grass and clay, Roddick’s power is merely effective. Speed is useful up to a certain extend and you can read the statistics; on grass and clay, effects and angles prime over power. Get through the numbers and see if you can get percentage of winning points off first and second serves if the ball is returned.

Compare Roddick and Federer and tell me who prepares the play better.

Yes Roddick had problem reading Federer’s serve. Off Federer’s own mouth, he says he sometimes sees all what Roddick is about to serve and sometimes not. If he cannot read it, the game is harder.

If Roddick didn’t played Federer well on his serve, Federer was even worst on Roddick’s. Aces tell me how accurate and disguised the shots were. Rallies won off first serves and second serves tells me how well you used it.

Both players were unable to read each other and were both serving really well. It happened Roddick didn’t adjusted anything and lost, but he yet won two games off Federer’s serve while Federer got only one out at the very end.

It tells me the game could have been lesser close on each side, but yet the game played is now history and Federer was the one able to get the important poitn off. Like he always did and always do.

that is absoloutely right thats what i thought too.

Good question…Roddick played like a winner overall but I think his down the line forehand might have been off. It could have been used as a serious weapon to finish a point, or at let set up a winner, but his wrist was a little bit closed and didn’t open up that down the line as much as he could have. When he DID, he actually was moving Federer all over the court like I’ve never seen Andy do. So I would say: down the line forehand.

I would have to say the one shot that hurt Andy was his approcach shots particularly on the backhand side. He was not effective enough with the approach slice on many occasions.

He made an excellent point. Aside from the serve, Roddick outplayed Fed most of the match. Often, I do see Roddick stand too close to the baseline when trying to return the serves of big servers. He needs to realize that hitting a weak return is far better than not getting a racquet on a serve. He should also maybe consider standinga bit farther back and moving close to the baseline right b4 the serve like Andy Murray does.

I thinki federer's court coverage is the main reason why roddick lost.Roger's court coverage is lethal.

Probably due to Rod's slice?

Couple possibilities… Roger has always done a great job of hitting short slices to Andy's backhand, resulting in a relatively weak approach shots, in which Federer would often pass and exploit Andy's weak net game. Another reason is that Andy likes to hit high-spinning forehands to Roger's forehand. When Andy did this Roger would either flatten it deep into Andy's backhand corner or flat cross-court. Roger is a better player anyways, but those are a couple of his tactics which resulted in a great win

hi..FYB is great

Spot on dude. Well considered and often neglected analysis. Keep up the great work. Ginnemo, UK