Wimbledon Thoughts

This year's Wimbledon has lacked a little bit of luster with defending champion and #1 ranked player Rafael Nadal withdrawing prior to the start of the tournament with a knee injury. But as we come upon the championship match, there is buzz growing as we are left with quite an intriguing finale. Roger Federer will be vying for his 15th grand slam title which would break the all-time record he shares with Pete Sampras. Federer will oppose Andy Roddick who will be trying to win his first grand slam title since 2003. Roddick reached the final by playing a masterful semifinal match against Britain's hometown player Andy Murray. Roddick played a great all-around game against Murray, combining his trademark powerful serve with a nice array of serve and volleying and baseline play. Roddick improved on his stellar tiebreaker record for 2009, winning both the 3rd and 4th sets in a tiebreaker. Roddick is now 26-4 in tiebreakers this year, which has to be a big psychological advantage for him whenever he finds himself in a tiebreaker.

Speaking of psychological advantages, Roger Federer has to be feeling very confident for the championship match against Roddick as he has an 18-2 career record against Roddick. In grand slam meetings Federer has a 7-0 record against Roddick. Those 7 grand slam victories include 3 wins in finals and another 3 victories in semifinals. Without Federer around, Andy Roddick would have won several more grand slam titles and may very well be recognized as the best player of his generation. Nonetheless Roddick has a chance on Sunday to spoil Federer's chance at history and claim a monumental victory of his own. Roddick has worked tirelessly on his fitness level and his all around game this past year, and a 2nd grand slam title would be so gratifying and emotional for him. For Roddick to pull of the big upset, he has to continue to get his 1st serves in at a high percentage and serve upwards of 35 aces for the match. I don't care how many grand slam titles Federer has, 140 mph serves are difficult to handle. I also think Roddick's mental toughness has improved so much this year and that will help him stay in the match if he gets behind. Roddick's grand slam results this year have been the best in his career, reaching the semifinals at the Australian Open for the 2nd time, the 4th round at Roland Garros for the 1st time, and reaching the finals of Wimbledon for the 3rd time. These results give Roddick the confidence and mental fortitude necessary to beat Federer.

However, Roger Federer is playing at a place that he has dominated for the past 7 years, going 47-1 at Wimbledon since 2003. Federer is by far the greatest player of my generation and he will not let this opportunity at history slip away. I predict that Federer will beat Roddick in 4 sets and will win his record breaking 15th grand slam title.

Random Musings

Here are a few random thoughts from the past few days in sports:

• The Penguins 4-2 victory in Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Finals last night will hopefully add some juice to the series. The NHL Playoffs had seemingly peaked a few weeks ago at the conclusion of the 2nd round with three great 7-game series and an equally entertaining 6-game series. The conference finals and the first 2 Stanley Cup Final games had been lacking drama and been somewhat anti-climatic. Game 3 was an entertaining, back and forth game and it at least gives the impression that the outcome of the series is in doubt. The Penguins netted 2 power play goals and rode their raucous home crowd to the big victory. Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby even got on the scoring sheet for the first time this series with 3 assists and 1 assist respectively. If the Pens can win Game 4 on Thursday night to tie the series, we should be headed for a quite a finish to the series.
• Mark Teixeira caused a bit of ruckus last night during the Rangers-Yankees game when he threw a hissy fit after being hit by a pitch for the 2nd time of the game by Rangers pitcher Vicente Padilla. Teixeira thought it was intentional and proceeded to stare and jaw at Padilla before finally walking to 1st base. Teixeira, noticeably agitated, then broke up a potential double play by sliding hard into shortshop Elvis Andrus. While I would usually encourage plays like that, Teixeira's slide was borderline dirty. This was now the 2nd time in the past few weeks that Teixeira had a temper tantrum. He was upset when Carlos Gomez of the Twins made contact with his arm on a couple of plays at first base. How dare anyone make contact with the immortal Mark Teixeira. Do Padilla and Gomez know that Teixeira will be making $180 million over the next 8 years? I also love Teixeira's postgame quote last night when he said "We did the talking with our bats." Not really Mark since you were talking trash at Padilla as soon as you were hit. Teixeira has quickly blended in with New York to become an easily hateable Yankee.
• The semifinals of the French Open are set with Roger Federer being the only one of tennis's Big Four remaining. Federer has now reached the semifinals in 20 consecutive grand slam tournaments which is an extraordinary achievement and one of many reasons that I believe he is the greatest player of all-time. Federer had an easier than anticipated match with Gael Monfils in the quartefinals and will play Juan Martin Del Potro in the semifinals, a guy who he has dominated in the past. Federer has won all 12 sets he has ever played against Del Potro including the 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 whipping he administered in the quarterfinals of this year's Australian Open. With the other semifinal featuring surprising Robin Soderling and Fernando Gonzalez, Federer has an excellent chance of completing the career Grand Slam and tying Sampras' career grand slam record of 14 titles. A Sunday morning championship match at Roland Garros with Roger Federer seeking history would be must-see television for even casual sports fans.