Translated material
Blacksmith of Records
Roger Federer wins US Open
The undisputed leader of the ATP auxiliary ranking and the championship race this season, Swiss Roger Federer became the first tennis player in world history to win the British and US Open championships for three years in a row. In the US Open final, the Basel native beat American Andy Roddick - 6:2, 4:6, 7:5, 6:1.Federer started the final match of the tournament in stunning fashion. Roger took five games in a row until the winner of the recent Masters in Cincinnati finally came to his senses and won back two points. “I think Federer did something incredible on the court,” Roddick admitted. - Sometimes it seemed as if I was running into a wall. Unfortunately, my serve didn’t go well in the opening of the match. Too few balls made it into the square on the first try, and their flight speed was far from ideal. Fortunately, I still managed to play a couple of games, I felt some kind of confidence, which became the reason for the equal fight in the next two games. In the third set I missed several good break opportunities. Somewhere I was in a hurry, somewhere I didn’t have time, as my coach Jimmy Connors put it, to turn on my head.”
After Federer regained the lead in the match, he went on another streak of winning five games in a row in the fourth game. Roddick was broken and admitted that he couldn’t even imagine how well prepared he had to be to overcome the Swiss: “He sees the court perfectly. Somehow different than other tennis players. Roger instantly assesses the situation, his hands deftly handle the racket, and the ball flies exactly where it cannot be reached.”
The American, who won the title at the US Open three years ago, has already played a dozen fights with his opponent in the decisive match and celebrated victory in only one. Moreover, the last six times Federer and Roddick met exclusively in the finals, and success was always on the side of the Swiss. The champion at the final press conference allowed himself the luxury of praising himself several times, although, as a rule, he tries to remain a very modest young man. “This season has been fantastic for me,” Federer said. - Two years ago I also won three Grand Slam tournaments, but failure at Roland Garros (elimination in the third round - Ed. ) did not give me a reason for heroism. And in 2006, I again managed to get three titles, and also reached the final at the French Open. This is an amazing result."
The Swiss won his ninth Grand Slam title and is sixth in the world in terms of the number of such major victories. Of his contemporaries, only American Pete Sampras (14 titles) and Bjorn Borg (11) are higher on this elite list. Federer's closest goal is to catch up and overtake William Tilden (10), who competed back in the 20s of the last century. Roger admitted that he wants to be at the top of the world classification for as long as possible and that among those who can currently compete with him are Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Roddick, following Rafael Nadal.
Some more impressive figures: in two years, Federer played more than a hundred matches on hard court and was defeated in only four, and on the American continent - only once, during the recent tournament in Cincinnati, misfiring in a game with Andy Murray (Great Britain). In the new ATP rankings, which take into account results over the past 52 weeks, the three-time US Open champion's lead over Nadal is a gap of 2,495 points. For comparison, let us point out that a victory at the Grand Slam tournament is valued at a thousand points, and success at the Masters is valued at 500 points. By the end of the season, the best tennis player on the planet has a chance to reach the unprecedented eight thousand mark, because he is going to play at the Masters in Paris and Madrid, which he missed last year.
Despite all the concerns associated with bad weather and two days of play completely lost due to rain, tournaments in all categories at the US Open ended on time, that is, before the end of last week. In the mixed doubles final, our Vera Zvonareva and Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy won against Nadezhda Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) - 7:6 (7:5), 7:5. In total, Russia has three winners of the US Open. The company of Maria Sharapova and Vera Zvonareva was Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who excelled in the girls' competition. She beat Austrian Tamira Paszek in the final - 3:6, 6:4, 7:5.