TENNIS WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS - MEN'S SINGLES FINALS:YOU WOULD wonder what Andy Roddick might have thought when Pete Sampras entered the Royal box at the first change over in the first game, walked down to the front row with his wife and shook hands with Rod Laver and Bjorn Borg. The 14 times Grand Slam winner then waved as the crowd applauded.

Roddick might have been in the zone and didn’t notice the arrival of the 14 times Grand Slam winner. Had he done so he would have known that Sampras did not fly in from America yesterday to see a fellow American win Wimbledon but see history being made. As was often the case in the career of Sampras his call on this one was also correct

It was a match of blistering simplicity. Roddick arrived with the big right arm, although, in his matches in the previous rounds showed that his net game had improved greatly since last year.

From the beginning it was a battle of patience and precision. The serve of each player was the important thing to hold on to and as they both hit aces and unreturnable serves in a tight first set, it seemed then the match was destined for a series of quick games and short rallies.

Roddick had arrived out with no track suit, just his racquet and cap and ready to rock, while Federer strolled out in his royal robes, gold trim and monogrammed shoes. Roddick looked like the rough hewn battler, Federer the elegant aristocrat.

But as soon as they began it seemed that this would be a match of few rallies and many aces. Bomb after bomb came down from both sides of the net as both players struggled with the power and the precision of each other’s deliveries.

Roddick, after tremendous pressure to hold serve by saving four set points finally broke Federer for 7-5 and the first set.

The second set went to a tie break in a featureless run of service games. Impressive precision from Federer, whose aces were regularly 10 to 15 mph slower that those of his opponent. The inevitable tie-break finally resolved it, Federer levelling the match when he came back from 1-5 down to win the tie-break 8-6.

I thought the second set was key to what came after,” said Fededer. “Maybe being down two sets to love and the way Andy was serving, would have been a difficult situation to be in. Even being two sets down it’s still possible but winning that set definitely increased my chances of winning.”

The third set also went to a tie-break with Federer pushing on for the 2-1 lead. But after the fourth set fell to Roddick, who broke the Fededer serve for 3-1 and never looked back, it started to look as if the match would come down to who ever blinked first.

In the US Open they play tiebreaks in the fifth sets as they like to get their winners sorted out quickly. But at Wimbledon matches cannot be won by a tie-break in the fifth set with each player needing to win by two clear games.

On that basis the two went to war and serve after serve flew down the centre, out wide. In truth it was Federer who was getting a better look at the Roddick serve and several times he backed up good returns with point building.

But the Swiss player was also making uncharacteristic errors of his forehand and backhand. What he was doing well was winning his own service games with some ease. As he approached the 50 mark, thoughts of Ivo Karlovic’s record were being discussed. The Croatian hit 55 aces against Lleyton Hewitt in this year’s French open to make a world record. But one record for Federer on the day was enough. The match finally came down to Federer leading 15-14 with Roddick serving to stay in the match. But by then the American looked tired as he moved around the court. A few great returns from Fededer and finally a return on Roddick’s second serve sealed the win as the American failed to control the ball.

“I know how it is to play a fifth set in a Wimbledon final,” said Fededer afterwards. “But (today) it felt different. It was so different to what I experienced the last few years with Rafa, where it was a baseline game. Today it was a serve and return game, which is more classic for grass.

“It was frustrating at times because I could not break Andy until the very, very end. So satisfaction is maybe bigger this time around to come through because I couldn’t control the match at all.”

That is not how it seemed as Federer was patience personified and durable. For every serve that he watched go by him he merely turned and walked across to the other side. The mental strength involved to survive that sort of battering is immense and only comes with the experience of having been in major finals so many times.

But Roddick too emerged with credit as well as a standing ovation from the crowd.

“You know it’s tough to come in here and give you guys a lot of insight so soon afterwards,” said Roddick. “But you know I just keep on going. You know there’s not another option.”