For Mathieu

In the wake of the glory of Wimbledon, we have a tragedy. French tennis player Mathieu Montcourt died overnight, aged 24.

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I can't say I know much about Montcourt. He made it to the second round of this year's Roland Garros where he lost to Stepanek, if I recall correctly. He was ranked just outside the top hundred and was looking to make a charge inside. But even if he is not known that well, he will certainly be missed, and it does not lessen this tragedy at all. He will be missed by the French tennis federation and by the international community. RIP Mathieu.

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There is play going on in three tournaments around the world at the moment - Newport, Bastad and Budapest - but the news is still all Wimbledon, still all Federer, still all history. I think you can tell that by looking at the ATP website and seeing it absolutely covered in Federer - apart from a story about Montcourt and a tiny piece about Grosjean. Andy Roddick is getting some love as well, but it's really all Federer, everywhere.

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I guess that's what happens when you make history! I don't know if we'll ever be able to understand the enormity of his achievements. I don't feel like there's much more I can say - surely I've heaped every superlative I've thought of on him - but I feel like he deserves more words anyway. Hence this rather dull yay Roger spiel - sorry!

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Today's Results

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Collector Swedish Open Women (Bastad)

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Caroline Wozniacki def. Sofia Arvidsson, 6-1 6-3

Dominika Cibukova def. Sandra Roma, 6-3 2-6 6-1

Flavia Pennetta def. Francesca Schiavone, 6-2 7-5

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez def. Kaia Kanepi, 6-1 7-6 (7-1)

Maria Kirilenko def. Irina Buryachok, 6-0 6-4

Petra Kvitova def. Julia Vakulenko, 6-3 4-1 retired

Masa Zed Peskiric def. Michela Johansson, 6-2 6-0

Nuria Llagostera Vives def. Ayumi Morita, 4-6 6-0 6-2

Angelique Kerber def. Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, 7-5 6-4

Ellen Allgurin def. Ksenia Palkina, 6-4 6-4

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GDF Suez Grand Prix (Budapest)

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Alize Cornet def. Galina Voskoboeva, 6-3 6-1

Sybille Bammer def. Klara Zakopalova, 6-2 6-3

Agnes Szavay def. Katalin Marosi, 6-1 6-1

Alisa Kleybanova def. Monica Niculescu, 6-0 6-3

Tomea Bacsinszky def. Sara Errani, 5-7 6-4 6-0

Petra Martic def. Lucie Safarova, 7-6 (7-5) 6-0

Ioana Raluca Olaru def. Greta Arn, 6-2 6-2

Shahar Peer def. Irina Begu, 6-1 4-6 6-4

Tathiana Garbin def. Sharon Fichman, 6-1 6-4

Patricia Mayr def. Margalita Chakhnashvili, 6-0 7-5

Kateryna Bondarenko def. Lenka Jurikova, 6-3 1-6 6-4

Marya Koryttseva def. Anna Lapushchenkova, 6-4 6-4

A Whole New World

The dust is beginning to settle. The Wimbledon website is now beginning to count down to next year's tournament (only 350 days to go before we have to go through it all again!) But I don't know if we will ever be able to appreciate the enormous significance of this match.

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Last year's Wimbledon final has been called the greatest match of all time, and it was certainly one of the most brilliant exhibitions of tennis I have ever seen. But what I think it now lacks - something which it didn't seem to lack at the time - is significance. This match, it was said, represented the changing of the guard - gone were the days of Federer, here were the days of the Spanish prince, the conquistador, and the game would never belong to the Maestro again. And for many months - even after Federer won the US Open - this seemed to be the case. It seemed to be confirmed at the Australian Open final. The age of Federer was over. The age of Nadal had just begun.

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But fast-forward to this year's Wimbledon final. By winning this match, Federer has ensured that his bitter defeat of last year no longer means anything like as much as it did. His second ascension started with Madrid, roared into gear at Roland Garros and exploded at Wimbledon. And suddenly, we are back in Federer's time, where the world belongs to him.

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You know who I feel sorry for - apart from Andy Roddick, for whom I am going to continue to feel for a very long time after that gargantuan effort he put in yesterday? Rafael Nadal.

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None of this is Rafa's fault. He didn't ask to be injured, and he certainly didn't decline to defend his title because he didn't want it badly enough. Anyone who has ever doubted the strength of mind and character of Rafael Nadal has been vamosed into submission some time ago. And he thoroughly deserved the year-odd he spent atop the rankings - a year when he was the best player in the world.

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But sport is cruel. I think we saw an example of this yesterday, when out of two determined, ferocious warriors, only one could win. I'm a massive Federer fan yet I cannot say I wanted Roddick to lose. I just wanted Federer to win more. It is completely cruel that Roddick could not win yesterday, just as it would have been heartbreakingly agonising if Federer had come out the worse. And it is cruel that Rafael Nadal should have suffered these injuries and suffered some tough circumstances in his personal life and suddenly find himself back at square one - or square two, so to speak, with all his work not necessarily undone but overshadowed.

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Rafael Nadal is a great champion, and he will be back, fistpumping and vamosing his way to more than a few titles, mark my words. There are more Slams in his future, more tense tussles with his great rivals, including Roger Federer. Our sport is lucky to have Rafa, and we have missed him this tournament.

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But this is the age of Roger Federer. He has overshadowed Sampras, Laver, Borg, just about anyone you can care to name. And while we must not forget Rafael Nadal, the man who has pushed and pushed and pushed Federer until he could push no more, this moment belongs to the greatest player in our game, who has once more ascended to the pinnacle of our sport. Wimbledon '08 has been overshadowed. Wimbledon '09 has taken its place. Such is the way of sport and such is the way of history - some events, no matter how weight is given to them at the time, can be superceded. Where there was disaster, now there is triumph. The ferociously determined victory of 2009 now takes the place of the heartbreakingly close loss of 2008. And the world has changed.

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Welcome to the Second Golden Age of Roger Federer.

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Today's Results

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Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships (Newport)

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Taylor Dent def. Marcos Daniel, 6-2 6-1

Robby Ginepri def. Santiago Ventura, 6-2 1-6 6-4

Prakash Amritraj def. Danai Udomchoke, 6-1 6-4

Jesse Levine def. Chris Guccione, 7-6 (7-2) 7-6 (7-2)

Brendan Evans def. Benjamin Becker, 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 7-5

Daniel Brands def. Vince Spadea, 6-0 6-4

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Collector Swedish Open Women (Bastad)

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Sorana Cirstea def. Johanna Larsson, 4-6 6-2 7-5

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova def. Jill Craybas, 6-3 3-6 6-3

Carla Suarez Navarro def. Lenka Wienerova, 6-0 7-5

Iveta Benesova def. Urszula Radwanska, 3-6 6-2 6-2

Gisela Dulko def. Marta Domachowska, 6-4 6-0

Alla Kudryavtseva def. Karin Knapp, 6-1 6-1

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GDF Suez Grand Prix (Budapest)

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Alona Bondarenko def. Karolina Sprem, 6-3 6-2

Edina Gallovits def. Tsvetana Pironkova, 7-5 6-2

Maria Elena Camerin def. Lourdes Dominguez Lino, 4-6 6-0 6-1

The King of the Grass Castle

If you can meet with triumph and disaster

And treat those two imposters just the same...

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These are the lines from Rudyard Kipling's poem If that are writ large above the entrance to Centre Court, the last things that the players see before they enter the arena of battle. Two men enter. One man leaves.

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Welcome to Thunderdome.

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And today, no one wanted to leave. For one there was triumph, the other defeat, but it took a mammoth epic to discover who was whom, who would hold up the greatest trophy in tennis and who would suffer an abject, heartbreaking defeat.

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Andy Roddick fought. He fought harder than anyone, including me, believed him capable. He played tennis the likes of which he has not played since - no, scratch that, I have never seen him play like this. What he did out today required not only huge amounts of heart and guts and other visceral organs, but it required cleverness and tactics and a whole lot of skill.

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But destiny would not be denied.

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And Roger Federer had a date with destiny, and he didn't want to be late.

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What a match this was. Last year might have been technically longer in minutes, but the epic of this year cannot be underestimated. The Wimbledon final has produced some excellent finals over the last three years in particular - all five sets, all involving Roger Federer, and all brilliant and heartbeaking all at once. And though last year's match, where Rafael Nadal dethroned the great man, has been called the greatest match of all time, I believe that year's match will take a rightful place beside it.

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For a match to be great, there needs to be two worthy opponents - and I cannot praise the efforts of Andy Roddick highly enough. To take the King of the Grass Castle to five sets, to a fifth set that will be remembered down the ages... I don't have the right words to describe what he has done. What a rejuvenation for his career. I read a great line somewhere today that said that Andy Roddick had found his mojo and found his Mirka, and I can't agree highly enough. Brooklyn Decker has been a wonderful influence on the A-Rod - and one cannot underestimate the effect that the brilliant mind of Larry Stefanki has had. Roddick is a whole new player. He is more than a serve with a forehand attached. His double-handed backhand was unbelievably effective - and I don't know how he fixed his volleys, but he has done it with aplomb. I cannot praise him highly enough.

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But today, in the end, belonged to the King. To the greatest player of all time. To the man that now holds all the records. 15 time Slam winner - 5 US Opens, 3 Australian Opens, 1 hardfought, brilliant Roland Garros and now an incredible 6 Wimbledons. The man who has reached 21 consecutive Slam semi-finals. The man who has played better and more consistently than any man in history. A man who now holds sixty singles titles.

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The Roland Garros and Wimbledon dual champion who has now ascended the pedestal once more and become the #1 player in the world.

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Today belonged to the greatest tennis player the world has ever seen. And it was fitting that so many of the greats were there to watch him. Bjorn Borg, who also won the Roland Garros and Wimbledon titles in a single season. Rod Laver, twice winner of the calendar year Grand Slam. And Pete Sampras, whom Federer has surpassed today as the winner of fifteen career Slams. All these men are great. But Federer has transcended their achievements, has ascended to another level.

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Destiny came calling for Roger Federer today. And with Swiss precision, he answered her call. There was a sense of profound rightness when he held up the trophy - the sense that some kind of order had been restored, that something incredibly, truly right had happened. And so it is with the great champions. Everything they do, they deserve.

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And Roger Federer belongs in their league, as the greatest of the great. Here at Wimbledon, he has experienced both triumph and disaster, and treated those two impostors just the same. He has filled the unforgiving minute with sixty seconds worth of distance run.

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And his is the earth, and everything that's in it - and what's more, what a man he is, my son!

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Today's Results

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The Championships (Wimbledon)

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Andy Roddick, 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14

Williamsdon

Once Serena won that first set tiebreak, you kind of knew the match was hers.

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The sisters were pretty evenly matched throughout the first set. Did anyone else get the feeling that the match hadn't really caught alight until maybe 5-all-ish, when they had a real crack at each other? It was almost automatic, the way they'd serve out their games to love or 15 or so. But then once the breaker came, it was time for somebody to step up. And it was Serena.

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In a way, I think that fight against Dementieva in the semis gave her an edge. Venus cruised the tournament pretty easily. Sure she faced some big names - Safina and Ivanovic came to mind - but she steamrolled them. Serena had some bigger tussles - Azarenka was tough, and then Dementieva was a friggin' mountain she had to climb - and I think it might have meant she was more in the right frame of mind. Not that one ever wants to question the amount of fight Venus has - she's a Williams, hello! - but I think Serena might just have it over her.

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I was pretty indifferent as to which one of them won - I suppose I might have had a slight preference for Venus, given that this is the one Slam she regularly does very well in whereas Serena does better all round - but I think we can say that the best woman won today. Serena Williams now holds three of the four Slam titles - the only one she missed out on is Roland Garros, and if Svetlana Kuznetsova hadn't got her in the quarters, who knows what might have happened there? I don't know if the legacy that the Williams sisters have left on the game has ever been truly appreciated - they've changed it completely. I used to think that their game was all about power and nothing else, but that's not the case. Just watching these two play... these girls have got some shots. Some serious shots.

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And then they backed it up to win the doubles, just like last year. Once again, the women's draw of Wimbledon was Williamsdon, just as it has been for pretty much the majority of this decade. No matter what one thinks of the sisters, one has to admire them for their sheer consistency over the last decade - particularly here, at this greatest of tournaments.

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Today's Results

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The Championships (Wimbledon)

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Women's Draw

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Serena Williams def. Venus Williams, 7-6 (7-3) 6-2

Haassassination

Roger Federer plays tennis so beautiful it hurts.

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This was just a lovely match. The score makes it look really close, but the reality was that you never, ever felt that Federer was in danger of losing. It felt like he was in the driver's seat for the entire match. And once he had that first set under his belt, even though Haas stayed with him... it was all over, Red Rover.

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Let's start with some gratuitous Tommy praise, because he did good, seriously. He served like a mofo and if he was playing a lesser player I don't reckon he'd have been broken. As it was, with Federer playing some majorly sweet tennis, those two breaks of serve still had to be eked out. And I liked seeing Tommy come into net and serve and volley - and he didn't crumble mentally, which he's done in the past. It was, in a way, better than the match he played against Federer in Paris, because he lost a massive lead there. Here, he struggled gamely but came up ultimately short against a player who is quite simply, amazing.

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And the thing is, that wasn't even close to the Federer Full Throttle (tm). It wasn't his beautiful Ultimate God Mode tennis, but it was incredible nonetheless. It was more to do with the aura of confidence he was radiating than anything else. He looked like he belonged there - and he does. This is his backyard, and he's the king of the castle at the moment.

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And in the final, he'll play... Andy.

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Roddick.

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And who predicted that at the beginning of the tournament?

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Me.

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I'm good. Oh yes I am.

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And what a match that battle of the Andies was! I live-tweeted the whole thing (as anyone who follows me on Twitter will probably have, you know, picked up - and that was a total popcorn match. In fact, I had popcorn. It was so enjoyable and so much fun to watch with some great tennis from both players. And Andy Roddick can... volley! This is a far cry from the player we used to see actively run away from the net. He played a brilliant tactical match today - and Murray, celebrated tactician though he is, could not adjust to what Roddick did.

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And it's just so great to see Roddick through. A Federer/Roddick final... that's old school, you know? That's like it was in the old days. Roddick said after his match that he didn't know if he'd ever have the opportunity to play for another Slam title, and I think Wimbledon is a very fitting title for him to play for, considering the wonderful finals he and Roger have had in the past.

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Make no mistake. I'm all Roger, all the way - and I both want him to and think he will win. But I'm really glad to see Roddick there. After the match he played today - clever, smart, aggressive tennis - he deserves that spot walking out under the celebrated lines of Kipling's If. He's earned his place here, and it will be like a final of days gone by to see these two playing each other.

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And also, who predicted that Federer would beat Haas and Roddick would beat Murray in the semis before a ball of the tournament was even played? That would be me. A little respect over here, please?!

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Today's Results

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The Championships (Wimbledon)

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Tommy Haas, 7-6 (7-3) 7-5 6-3

Andy Roddick def. Andy Murray, 6-4 4-6 7-6 (9-7) 7-6 (7-5)

A Lot To Be Proud Of

Who would have thought Elena Dementieva had so much fight in her?

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Certainly not me. I'm very sorry, Elena, for saying such mean things about you, for calling your draw a cakewalk and for suggesting that you would crumble under the Serena pressure. This was one of the best women's matches I've seen in a long time. 8-6 in the third... you really don't see that often - not at Wimbledon, not if Serena's playing, unless she's playing Venus.

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Venus had a much easier time of it. I predicted that she would steamroll Safina, and she... steamrolled Safina. I didn't see the match - I fell asleep - but a scoreline like that tells a story. Still, I don't know if that result will be anywhere near as disheartening as the French Open final for her. People expected her to win that one - no one expected her to beat Venus.

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And maybe that was part of the problem. No one believed in her - not even herself.

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Clearly not a problem Dementieva had. I'm still a bit gobsmacked about this performance of hers - it totally came out of left field. She went out there, believed she could do it and went for it. Sure, she came up a little short in the end, but that was some performance. That is a lot to be proud of. And yes, another opportunity to get into the final of a Slam went begging, but Elena served warning notice - we can't keep counting her out.

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So even though we have the all family final, Elena for me was the big winner today. She's been raised significantly in my estimation. Well done, Elena!

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Today's Results

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The Championships (Wimbledon)

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Women's Draw

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Serena Williams def. Elena Dementieva, 6-7 (4-7) 7-5 8-6

Venus Williams def. Dinara Safina, 6-1 6-0

Breaking The Giant's Back

I don't know if I have ever, EVER, in my all days of watching tennis, seen three more Ultimate God Mode returns than the three key returns Roger Federer played off Ivo Karlovic's mammoth first serve.

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Two were in the first break of serve, one in the second. (The only two breaks, coincidentally, that Karlovic has suffered in this tournament and in the entire grass court season.) One was forehand, two were backhand. Absolute reflex shots off serves coming down the court at a pace that would make the speed of light feel slow. And they came back pretty much faster than they went down, right in the corner, thank you very much.

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There are no words I can use to describe them. Viewing is necessary. But oh my lordy, they nearly killed me with their insane beauty. I didn't even think that was possible. I don't think Ivo Karlovic thought it was possible. Crazy.

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Federer played a wonderful match today, given his opponent - when he could get the ball back against the Karlovic serve (and when he wasn't hitting returns which are actually physically impossible) he kept it down low at the big guy's shoelaces and Karlovic really had to work to scoop them out. He played a smart match and put on an absolute clinic of serving. He faced no break points, went to deuce only once and served his way out of it immediately. When there were baseline rallies, I would venture to say that he won at least 90% of the time. He actually made more service winners than Karlovic - Dr Ivo had no idea what was going on with the Federer serve by the end of the match and couldn't get the return in more than one time out of every ten - and he made an incredible seven unforced errors for the match. Not for a single set. For the match.

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Crazy.

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Added to which he's through to his twenty freaking first Slam semi in a row, and that is just unheard of. Roger Federer was in god mode today and I am in gush mode. That was crazy. Absolutely insane. Impossible, and amazing.

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And who was it that correctly predicted all four men's semifinalists? Oh yeah, that would be me. We're getting a battle of the Andies in the top half - though Lleyton Hewitt came much closer to knocking out the Andy of the Roddick variety than I expected - and Federer/Haas in the other one. That was a great win Haas had over Djokovic - I'm very glad to see him in the semis! When was the last time he made it this far without a piano falling from the sky and landing on his head or some similar freak accident? Slightly left of never, I would be thinking.

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Today's Results

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The Championships (Wimbledon)

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Men's Draw

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Roger Federer def. Ivo Karlovic, 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-3)

Tommy Haas def. Novak Djokovic, 7-5 7-6 (8-6) 4-6 6-3

Andy Murray def. Juan Carlos Ferrero, 7-5 6-3 6-2

Andy Roddick def. Lleyton Hewitt, 6-3 6-7 (10-12) 7-6 (7-1) 4-6 6-4