Sunday, July 5th Bullets

Sports:

• Andy Roddick's 2nd set tiebreak in the 2009 Wimbledon Final is probably going to haunt him the rest of his career. He was up 6-2 with a serve, lost the set point on a missed backhand volley that could have easily been a winner as Federer was stretched all the way to the right of the court. Federer held his 2 service points and Roddick lost on his serve again at 6-5 for set point. Then he lost his next service point and Federer won the tiebreak 8-6 on his serve. That set would have given him a 2-0 set lead and might have dampened Federer's resolve.
  
• The third set tiebreak was Federer's all the way, but you have to wonder about the "what if" in the 2nd set with the way Roddick was serving. Roddick wasn't broken until the last game of the entire match, and if he can hold through the 3rd or 4th set after winning the 2nd set, he's got a great shot at winning the 2009 Wimbledon. Really heart-breaking.
• Roger Federer seems a bit off when he talks after winning titles. He told Roddick not to feel bad after the tough loss because he went through the same thing in 2008 at Wimbledon with Nadal, and Roddick joked back that Federer had already won 5 at that point, but seemed genuinely upset by the comment. Federer is a humble guy, but not as humble sometimes as he could be. He talks about winning more grand slams and winning in straight sets and things like that which greats usually avoid doing. Most will just talk about how fortunate they are to win at all and don't touch on any of their confidence in facing opponents or winning again. The best way I can put it is that he talks about winning with "certainty", whereas other greats talk about "possibility".
  
• Tiger Woods competing in his own tournament seems a bit weird, but I guess when you're the best in the world you can do whatever you want. He does donate all his personal winnings to his charity foundation. Federer should have his own tennis tournament.
• The first day that NBA free agents can actually sign contracts is Wednesday. Look for any surprises with all the players who have "verbally committed" to teams including but not limited to: Turkoglu, Artest, Lamar Odom and Ariza. Players like Iverson, Kidd, Rasheed Wallace, Marbury, Johnson, Marion, and David Lee are still undeclared.

• It's weird to imagine that sports is really just a bunch of random happenings. When sports can be merely reduced to statistical probabilities it really takes the fun out of it: Some amazing thing happens only 5% of the time, and when it does happen we celebrate it and remember it and revel in it, but would we do as much if we knew it was just something that had a 1-in-20 chance of happening and just happened to occur?