Andy Roddick to face Roger Federer in men’s final

TODAY’S FEATURED MATCH

MEN’S FINAL

(World rankings in parentheses.)

Andy Roddick (6) vs. Roger Federer (2), Switzerland

The renovated Roddick, who played arguably the match of his life against Andy Murray in a road game of a semifinal, runs up against a player who has won a record-tying 14 Grand Slam titles, including five Wimbledon titles, and appeared in the last six Grand Slam finals. Federer also appeared in 16 of the last 17 Grand Slam finals, appeared in a record 20 Grand Slam finals and appeared in the last seven Wimbledon finals for a fresh record. In addition, Federer has appeared in a record 21 straight Grand Slam semifinals, won fans even in losing one of the greatest matches ever in the 2008 Wimbledon final, became one of only six men to win all four Grand Slam titles in a career, moved within one win from becoming only the second man since 1980 to win the French Open and Wimbledon in June-July and moved within one win of regaining the No. 1 ranking he held for 237 weeks and then lost for 46. He holds an 18-2 record against Roddick plus 6-0 in Grand Slams. Other than those details, the guy’s just a terrible player.

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ENGLISH BREAKFAST

Andy Roddick may have felled Andy Murray, but that doesn’t make him some sort of villain, especially with some English people secretly rooting against the Scot and with Wimbledon fans more genteel than most even in this more casually dressed era. “You know, I think here maybe more so than anyplace outside of the States I’ve developed a little bit of rapport with the fans,” Roddick said. “Maybe you guys are helping me by asking me a bunch of goofy questions and me giving a bunch of goofy answers.” It’s unclear whether Roddick will gain any favor from a running sub-theme of the fortnight, his banter with one reporter obsessed with his confession of fandom for the 1980s British pop star Rick Astley, or whether that confession might engender a measure of sympathy.

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BRITMANIA UPDATE

Mirror: ANDY CLIMAX. Sun: RODDY HELL. Daily Express: MURRAY MAULED. Daily Star: OH NO! Daily Telegraph: The Wrong Andy. Independent: Volley of Despair. On to cricket and the Ashes series with Australia. And then, on to football (also knows as soccer) season, which dwarfs all of the above, even a could-have-been Murray title. Did you realize Manchester United signed Michael Owen?

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ALSO ON SATURDAY

Having finished up the singles by mid-afternoon, Venus and Serena Williams finished up the doubles by 9 in the evening, winning their fourth Wimbledon title by 7-6 (4), 6-4 over Samantha Stosur and Rennae Stubbs of Australia. “There’s nothing like winning a title with your sister,” Serena said after their ninth Grand Slam doubles title . . . Bob and Mike Bryan, the Camarillo natives in the men’s doubles final, lost out to defending champions Daniel Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia, 7-6 (7), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (3), 6-3, in a match in which the winners claimed 142 points and the losers 139.

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SHIRT OF THE DAY

Serena Williams arrived for her post-title news conference wearing a white sponsor’s T-shirt that read, “Are You Looking At My Titles?” “This shirt is available in . . . stores, if you guys want to go.”

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STATISTIC OF THE DAY

4, 1, 3 and 3: The breakdown of Serena Williams’ Grand Slam collection in the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and U.S. Open

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

Roger Federer, asked to assess a “top four or five” of his whopping 14 Grand Slam titles, and after a long explanation mentioning several of them: “I probably even forget a few sometimes now.”

-- Chuck Culpepper