Roger Federer won his record fifteenth Grand Slam singles title on 5 July 2009, defeating Andy Roddick 16–14 in the fifth set of a Wimbledon final that stretched across four hours and seventeen minutes.
Four set points saved, one match reversed
The match turned in its second-set tiebreak. Roddick led 6–2 and held four set points for a commanding lead. Federer reeled off six consecutive points, the most vivid a backhand volley Roddick pushed wide at 6–5, and levelled the match.
Roddick refused to fade. He broke Federer in the fourth set to force a deciding fifth, the third consecutive Wimbledon final to reach that distance. Both men then held serve without a single break point through the first sixteen games of the set.
A single break, thirty games deep
At 8–8 Federer faced double break point, two points from almost certain defeat. He answered with two unreturnable serves and held. No further break chance surfaced until Roddick served at 14–15, when Federer broke for the first time all afternoon and sealed the championship.
The fifth set alone consumed thirty games, the most ever played in a Grand Slam final decider. The full match totalled 77 games, another all-time final record. Roddick became the only man to lose a major final after being broken just once.
A summer that shifted history
The victory came one month after Federer completed the career Grand Slam at the French Open, tying Pete Sampras’s mark of fourteen majors. Sampras flew from California to watch courtside, joined by Björn Borg and Rod Laver, as Federer accepted the trophy with a gold “15” stitched onto his Wimbledon jacket.
“Tennis is cruel,” Federer said afterwards. Roddick, asked the same, replied simply: “No, I’m one of the lucky few who gets cheered for.” The final drew 11.1 million UK viewers at its peak.
With this title Federer reclaimed the world number one ranking and set a solitary standard in the men’s game — a number that would grow still further across the quiet years to come.
