Federer
I just stayed up to watch the depressingly short semifinal match between Roger Federer and Andy Roddick. I was of course rooting for Andy, but Roger put on another one of his seemingly routine show-for-the-ages routines, with a particularly amazing second set in which he blanked the hard-serving American 6-0. The rest of the match seemed to be on autopilot for Federer, who didn’t seem to even break a sweat.
Although Federer still has a few records to break (which I am convinced he will break), I am pretty sure that a tennis player of his dominance is unprecedented. Sure, he’s not perfect yet — he is weak on clay (thank goodness for Roland Garros), and he had a bad game in which Roddick broke him in the first set, but for much of the match it looked like a convincing reason that we don’t have college teams play in the NBA finals. One game might be fun, but after that it just wouldn’t be entertaining.
However, it is not in my nature to begrudge someone just for being good at what they do. I am in favor of great competition, but I prefer that competition to come from player’s rising to a higher level during competition rather than the better player having a bad day. So I want Andy to beat Federer — the sooner the better — but I want him to win by outplaying Federer at his best, and not because Federer has a bad day.
Until then, I guess we just have to wait for the French Open, when Nadal to call up his clay magic once again and restore a little bit of balance to the Tennis universe.