21-3

Usually when you see a picture such as the one above, with Roger Federer and Andy Roddick walking off the court, your instinct might be to assume that Roger extended his ridiculous winning streak to 22-2 over Andy without much of an afterthought.   But, in a surprising (and exciting) twist in the 3rd round of the Sony Ericsson Open, Roddick did what he was unable to do for most of his career, and defeated the man considered the greatest of all time, for only the 3rd time in their 24 meetings.  It was an emotional moment for Andy who has been battling a string of injuries which have caused his ranking to drop to 34, the lowest it's been in the past 10 years.  But, what made this moment even more amazing is how both men were extremely complimentary of each other in their respective press conferences.

Andy Roddick:

You know, as with any time you play Roger, he's developed such a fan base.  And side story, I  you know, you're around guys a lot, but The Garden event that we did three weeks ago was the first time Roger and I spent an entire day together doing stuff.

I'm amazed at the way he does every picture, every autograph.  You know, I know what I deal with on a small scale, and it's not what he does.

So, you know, you start to have an understanding why people are so fanatical about him.  You know, I think the crowd anywhere cheers for him. 

And probably in the USA it would have pissed me off not too long ago, but I fully get it now after seeing the way he is and was three weeks ago.   You know, I didn't think I could be more impressed with him, but I was really impressed with the way he went about his business for those couple days up there.

In his press conference, he also explained why he pointed to the sky after his win,

My agent [Ken Meyerson who died from a heart attack in October of last year] was from here and his wife was here.  You know, I felt like I was a crazy person because I think I was having full dialogues with him the last 30 minutes of the match.

So, you know, I was just letting him know that I heard him and I was equally crazy tonight.

Roger Federer was equally complementary of Andy:

I hope you guys give him more credit than he's getting at the moment.  I'm happy to see him play really well, you know.  He's a great champion, and enjoy him while you have him.  It was a great night for him and America's tennis.

They both exuded all class, and I only hope that tennis fans appreciate champions such as these while they are still active in the game, because when they are gone they will be greatly missed.