I lost to Roger Federer in four Grand Slam finals and this is why Rafa Nadal could challenge Swiss great and I could not
No-one knows how defeat agains⛄t Roger Federer feels like more than And꧙y Roddick
The 💜American, who won the US Open in 2003 for his only major title, had four heart-breaking Grand Slam final losses to Federer.
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Losing the 2004, 2005 and 2009 Wimbledon final to the𒊎 Swiss along with the 2006 US Open final.
In-fact Roddick lost to Federer in every single major match they had, including all eight🐭 of their Grand Slam meetings.
For ꦕthe Omaha-born former world no.1 it left Federer as the unbeatable champion.
Despite Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic sitting above him in the all-time list, many players on tour placed🐼 the 20-time Grand Slam winner as the dominant force in tennis.
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Although for Roddick things began to change when Nadal made hi🅷s major breakthrough.
The now-retired 42-year-old went into detail on how Nadal was able to disrupt Federer's grip on the sport.
“It took the perfect prototype of a player to eve𒁏n bother Roger [Federer] a little," Roddick s෴aid on his podcast,
“Chuckers like me certainly weren’t doing it, but you create a prototype of someone who i⛦s fast, strong, and can find the only pocket up and away on Roger, and all of a sudden it made tennis interesting again.
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Nadal, a 22-time Grand Slam champion, would end up leading his head to head with Federer by 24𝔍-16 and beat the Swiss in their first ever ATP match in 2004 in Miami.
Roddiꦜck went o꧟n to explain the impact on tennis that the spectacular young Spaniard would have have, at a time when Federer had been sweeping all before him.
“He completely transformed tennis with his ability to create spin, and power, and spee💝d, and then all of a sudden you put all of those things together," Roddick said of Federer.
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“Then we had another cyborg [Nadal] that came through, he could create more distance between opponents and switch directions better than anyone ever, it was just a🔯 fascinating time."
“I didn't feel like a player more like a fan whilst I was playing.”
Roddick could not end his praise for Nadal without the man behind the player, praising🍌 the 14-time French Open winner for his personality and kindness.
The Spaniard recently called time on h🌳is career, ending his professional career at the Davis Cup playing for Spain in Novembe🌠r.
“Aไn absolute gentleman, if my kids ever tried to imi💃tate anything that Rafa [Nadal] did, I would be beaming with pride,” Roddick said.
“The way he went about it, the way he treated people, the way he had time for everyone, in his bad moods he would still look you in the eye and sayꦏ hello.
“T🦩hat’s before we even get to what he did on the court, and the way he fought, the way he went about his business, with Rafa, I won’t rea🍷d one thing that’s positive and disagree with it.”
Nadal joins the list of recently retired tennis champions with Federer calling time in 2022, before Andy Murray earlier this year wﷺith other notable players like 2020 US Open champion Dominic Thiem who retired in October.
It leaves Djokovic, aged 37, along as the last man standing and taking on the new era of the men's game led by Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz.
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The trio have won each of the last ten Grand Slam titles since Nadal's French Open triumph in 2022.
Four each for Djokovic and Alcaraz, along with tw🅷o for current world no.1 Sinner who was champion in Melbourne and New York in 2024.
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