A pair of champs
NEW YORK — Roger Federer and Tiger Woods broke open two bottles of Dom Perignon and toasted — to a growing friendship, greatness and Grand Slams.
With his new best pal watching from a corner box, Federer rocketed a final forehand past Andy Roddick, then fell to his knees and flopped onto his back. He'd won his third straight U.S. Open title in convincing fashion, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 Sunday.
When it was over, Federer returned to the locker room, cracked open the champagne and spent an hour with perhaps the only other athlete on the planet who understands such sheer domination.
They'd met for the first time earlier in the day, but had been distant admirers. And after Federer's third Grand Slam win this year and ninth overall — Woods has won 12 majors — they visited. Federer sat while Woods stood with his foot on a chair, two champions in the zone.
"More and more often, over the last year or so, I've been kind of compared to Tiger — what he's doing on the golf tour, me doing on the tennis tour," Federer said. "I asked him how it was for him. Many things were similar. He knew exactly how I kind of felt out on the court.
"That's something that I haven't felt before: A guy who knows how it feels to feel invincible at times and when you just have the feeling like there's nothing going wrong anymore," he said.
Federer called his parents in Switzerland. Avid golfers, they were thrilled when he put Woods on the phone. And that only reinforced Federer's solid first impression.
"He's very nice, and much nicer than I expected. I thought him to be nice, but he's really, really nice, so that's nice," Federer said.
At a tournament that spent two weeks paying tribute to the greats of the game — Andre Agassi's tear-filled goodbye, Martina Navratilova's for-real retirement and the renaming of the tennis center in Billie Jean King's honor — Federer left his mark.
Only 25, many think he'll wind up being called the best player ever. This was the first Grand Slam event to use instant replay to challenge calls — 32 percent were overturned, overall — yet no one contested Federer's dominance.
"Obviously, he's the guy everybody's chasing," said Jimmy Connors, Roddick's adviser.
Federer won every major this season except the French Open, and moved closer to Pete Sampras' total mark of 14.
Facing a player known for a big serve, Federer outserved him. He fired 17 aces without a double-fault; Roddick has seven aces and one double-fault.
"I'm shocked myself how well it's been going the last three, four years," Federer said, "being not only compared to former great tennis players, but now especially also other great athletes all over sports. It's just really nice."
Federer took control early against the 2003 U.S. Open champ, winning the first five games in only 17 minutes. At that point, there seemed little doubt that he would improve to 11-1 lifetime against the ninth-seeded Roddick.
"Roger is at the top, and he's the only person at the top, regardless of how much people want to make rivalry comparisons and this, that and the other," Roddick said. "He's the best player in the game. There's no question in my mind."
