BACK ON TOP OF THE WORLD; Federer takes long route to record breaking 15th grand slam win.

Byline: PHIL CASEY

ROGER FEDERER was back at number one in the world today, but the number 15 was of far greater significance to the Wimbledon champion.

Federer's sixth triumph at the All England Club yesterday was the 15th grand slam title of his career, one more than Pete Sampras, who kept his promise to watch the historic moment live by flying in overnight from California.

The 27-year-old survived an epic battle with Andy Roddick to create history, winning 5-7 7-6 (8/6) 7-6 (7/5) 3-6 16-14 in a match which featured the most games ever in a Wimbledon final (77) and the most in a set in a final (30).

Federer felt the absence of defending champion Rafael Nadal through injury should take none of the gloss off his triumph, and added: "I'm happy that I became number one by winning the tournament, not just by him (Nadal) not playing at all. That's not the way it's supposed to be.

"It's supposed to be that you win big matches, big tournaments. That's how you get back to it."

Federer's 15 titles have come in just 25 events and the Swiss star added: "It's staggering that I've been able to play so well for so many years and stay injury free. It's crazy that I've been able to win so many in such a short period of time.

"It was frustrating at times because I couldn't break Andy until the very very end so the satisfaction is maybe bigger this time around to come through, because I couldn't control the match at all.

"I thought the second set was obviously key to what came after. Being down two sets to love, the way Andy was serving, would have been a very difficult situation to be in. I had to play my very best to come through."

Federer spared a thought for the unlucky Roddick, who he has now beaten three times in Wimbledon finals, and who had to hold his serve ten times in succession during the epic final set to stay in the match.

"Tennis is cruel sometimes," added Federer, who finally made the breakthrough at the 11th time of asking by forcing Roddick to mis-hit two forehands.

"I had some five-setters too in grand slam finals and ended up losing. But I think he did great. I think he's not gonna let his head hang down, I think he's gonna come back strong and play great in the States."

Roddick admitted the second-set tie-break, when he led 6-2, would live long in the memory and was difficult to recover from during the match.

"There's no way it doesn't cross your mind," he said. "We're human, we're not cyborgs. At that point, like everything else, there's two options; you lay down or you keep going. The second option sounded better to me."

The 26-year-old has now reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open and Wimbledon final since starting to work with coach Larry Stefanki at the end of last year, and added: "I took some satisfaction in November and December when we started to move forward.

"It was to give yourself an opportunity to win tournaments like this. I feel like I did give myself that opportunity today. It didn't work out but I gave myself a look."

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SUPER SLAM: Roger Federer's epic Wimbledon victory yesterday was a 15th Grand Slam success for the Swiss star