Tennis machine bores public, profits from pulled groin

I watched all of Roddick/Federer on Sunday morning. Despite being recond-settingly long (5-7, 7-6 (6), 7-6 (5), 3-6, 16-14) championship tennis, it was a surprisingly dull match. Federer won the match, but that was his first break of serve in the entire match on Roddick's 48th service game. (Roddick broke only twice). It was a bit like watching soccer; we got deliriously excited at half-chances and the innuendo of momentum shifts (e.g. " ooh, a first serve fault by Federer at 15-O, this could be an opportunity. Come on, Andy!") because it was all there was to get excited about.

It was simply hard to build drama when both players could serve their way out of trouble at will. (Federer had in excess of 50 aces. and Roddick won >90% of his first serve points).

It became clear deep into the 5th set that this would be the kind of match that Federer would win. His mental toughness, while impressive, had an dull inevitability to it. he was invulnerable after about 10-10 in the 5th. but early in the match, he was far from perfect. Roddick had a clear opporutnity to go up 2 sets to 0 until he choked a tie-break lead away. Federer seemed unnerved by Roddick's power. I

Roddick slipped and potentially pulled a groin late in the 4th set and was never quite as dangerous after that. The 5th turned into a conservative slog whcih favored Federer now that Roddick's best weapon had been muted by injury.