The Quadrangle

Issue date: 9/20/06 Section: Sports

Federer became the 6th all time on the Grand Slam's list with his 9th victory in Flushing.

After two long weeks of competition, Roger Federer won his third straight U.S. Open title in a final round with crowd-favorite Andy Roddick. This win marks his ninth career Grand Slam title and secures his number one world ranking for the third year in a row.
Federer, who is the first man since Ivan Lendl in 1985-1987 to win the U.S. Open three years in a row, has also won three back to back Wimbledon tournaments, a record in tennis history. When it came down to the championship Federer managed to out-serve Andy Roddick, a fan favorite and 2003 U.S. Open winner. The final round closed with a 6-1 record, with a final score of four sets to one.
Going into the final round seeded in ninth place Roddick said, "You know I'm just going to go out and throw it all at him, just play the way I have. If the guy plays too well, then he plays too well. But I'm not going to lay down. I'm going to go out there and try to win the U.S. Open."
At the beginning of the second set Roddick finally seemed to be giving Federer a match after being handled pretty easily in the first set; he broke Federer at love with a forehand passing shot. His success though, would be short-lived. Federer completed the fourth game with a strong hit for another break. After Roddick held serve the game ended with an intense passing shot.
The first test of the players' mettle came early in the third set when Federer saved four break points to keep his 3-2 lead. In the next set, Roddick answered Federer by successfully dealing with five break points to make the score 3-all. In the tiebreaker Federer used two backhand returns to break the serve and end the set.
Federer then breezed to a 5-0 lead using a combination of well-spun aces, curling passing shots, crisp volleys and return speeds of over 135 mph.
Despite his recent work with five-time U.S. Open Champion Jimmy Connors Roddick missed out on his twenty-second career title. Connors has revamped Roddick's game, expanding his skill sets and raising his confidence.
At one time critics thought that Roddick was the man who could unseat the number one ranked Federer, but Federer is now ranked 11-1 against Roddick. The last time the Roddick has defeated Federer was in 2003. Throughout the tournament Roddick's game showed marked improvement; he displayed far more focus than previous tournaments and his expanded and improved serves are reminiscent of his game from previous years.
Federer's win places him in sixth place for most Grand Slam titles after greats Pete Sampras, Roy Emerson, Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver, and Bill Tilden.
Federer commented on his achievement: "I'm shocked myself how well it's been going the last three, four years, being not only compared to former great tennis players, but now especially also other great athletes all over sports, it's just really nice."
If Federer can hold onto his ranking until February 26, 2007, he can again go down in tennis history, this time for holding the record for longest running number one ranking. Jimmy Connors, who kept his number one ranking for 160 consecutive weeks, currently holds the record. Currently, Federer is the fifth player in the history of ATP rankings to finish number one for three years in a row. Pete Sampras holds the current record at six years.

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