Roger Federer, of Switzerland, kisses the championship trophy after winning the men's finals championship over Andy Murray, of Britain, at the U.S. Open tennis tournament in New York, Monday, Sept. 8, 2008. AP Photo/Charles Krupa
It’s all in the newspapers, in case you Sydney-siders did not stay awake until 4am on Monday morning. So I’m not going to repeat Roger Federer’s epic and record-breaking fifteenth Grand Slam title and echo what Sampras said about him being the greatest ever player.
I want to discuss the final set, which Federer won 16-14 against Andy Roddick, an heroic opponent.
This was the longest fifth set in a Wimbledon final.
The tense match lasted four hours and 18 minutes, each minute providing gripping top-class tennis drama in which Roddick made fewer errors.
On June 16th, I had posted on the Roar website a column titled Ten Tantalizing Bits of Tennis Trivia.
One of them was: the longest Wimbledon match lasted five hours and 12 minutes and included 112 games. This was in 1969, when ‘Pancho’ Gonzales had beaten fellow American Charles Passarell 22-24, 1-6, 16-14, 6-3, 11-9.
I had added in that column that this record can only be broken if Wimbledon abolishes the tie-break rule.
A few hours after my column was posted, Chop corrected me on The Roar.
He commented, “As unlikely as it is, there could still be a long match because of the advantage set in the fifth set of men’s [match] and there could still be a score-line in the realms of 7-6, 6-7,7-6, 6-7, 31-29.”
Not that unlikely, Chop!
It almost happened in the Wimbledon final on Sunday. As tie-breakers are not allowed in the fifth set, the set went on and on to 16-14 and ended when Roddick was broken for the first time in his 38th game.
Had he not been broken, the final set could have gone on to 26-24 or 36-34, or even beyond. The mind boggles. Theoretically, there is no limit.
When there were no tie-breakers in any set, Richard Leach and Richard Dell out-fatigued fellow Americans Tom Mazur and Lenny Schloss 3-6, 49-47, 22-20 at New Port, Rhode Island on 18-19 August 1967.
The 96 game second set is perhaps still the longest on record in senior tennis.
The way Roddick and Federer were serving, this record could well have been broken. Improbable but not impossible.
And the match could have gone on for over six hours, another endurance record – as much for the spectators’ necks as for the players’ legs!
This brings me to this question. Why not have tie-breakers in the fifth set of Men’s and third set of Women’s matches?
If the person reaching seven points first in the fifth set and winning the match is too hit and miss, why not increase that target to 17?
Else it could well be from here to eternity as Federer aims to equal and then better the record of seven Wimbledon Men’s titles held jointly by Great Britain’s William Renshaw (1881-86 and 1889) and by Sampras from 1993-95 and 1997-2000.
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