Federer is greatest ever.. but genius goes missing on his big day.

Byline: OLIVER HOLT

THE 1980 Wimbledon men's final between Bjorn Borg and John McEnroe gave us The Tie-Break. This year's epic gave us The Set.

The longest in the history of men's finals at the All England Club.

A mere 16-14 to the history man, Roger Federer, over the guy who should have won, Andy Roddick.

Thirty high pressure, heart-in-mouth games. Ninety-five minutes of teethgrinding, stomach-churning tension.

If it had been any longer, Roger Federer's heavily pregnant missus would have been overdue.

But there was something else about The Set that may, in years to come, be lost in the remembrance of Federer's 15th Grand Slam victory.

The fact is that The Set rescued a Wimbledon final that was curiously devoid of passion and emotion.

And in particular it redeemed an uninspired performance by the master.

The sheen of time may bestow upon this match a quality it does not deserve because it took Federer past Pete Sampras's Grand Slam record and allowed statistics to confirm him as the best player of all-time.

The irony is it was probably the world number one's poorest performance in a men's final here or at any of the other Majors.

Sampras, who flew in specially and sat in the front row of the Royal Box, spoke generously of Federer afterwards but looked thoroughly unimpressed during the match.

Perhaps it was jet-lag. Or Grand Slam envy. But Pistol Pete barely raised a clap in the four hours and 16 minutes.

The reality, hard though it may be to swallow in the rush of acclaim for a great champion, is that Federer did not win this match so much as Roddick lost it.

The best that can be said about Federer is he hung in there. He toughed it out. He stuck around long enough for Roddick to falter.

That ability to win when you are struggling, Roddick pointed out afterwards, is a part of Federer's greatness for which he does not receive enough credit.

There were only sprinkles of his magic. Some magnificent flat forehands he ran around on his backhand side and crushed across court. Some dreamy touches at the net.

Yet he littered the court with unforced errors, shots off the frame, unintentional moonballs, the lot. But he served like a demon, which allowed him to cling on. And he got the job done, which is what matters.

Roddick, who had lost to Federer on 18 of the 20 occasions they had met before yesterday, had chances. Great chances. And he blew them.

The second set tie-break will haunt the American for the rest of his years. He had won the first set by then and worked himself into a 6-2 lead in the tie break. He had four set points.

Roddick had nothing to berate himself for over the first three Federer saved. But the fourth was different.

He worked his way to the net and Federer lashed a forehand at him that looked as if it was flying long. Roddick chose to play it. He hit a high backhand volley that flew horribly wide.

"When he first hit it, I wasn't gonna play it," Roddick said, "but then last minute it looked like it started dropping. So I played it but I couldn't get my racquet around on it."

Federer won six points in succession to level the match. If Roddick had won that set, the odds are he would have won the match. He had had Federer where he wanted him, low and dispirited, and allowed him to escape.

So the drama the match did generate came from Roddick. It came from his refusal to surrender to the demons that were bouncing around his mind.

"We're human," Roddick said. "We are not Cyborgs. There were two options: you lay down or you keep going. The second sounded better."

So even though Federer won a second tie-break to take a two sets to one lead, Roddick broke Federer's serve in the fourth set and took the match into its epic decider.

Because Roddick served second, he had to serve ten times to stay in the final. It seemed as though Federer had cracked when Roddick earned two break points at 8-8 with a crushing down the line backhand.

But Federer saved the first with a serve Roddick could not return and the second with a serve and drivevolley winner.

The first time there was a match point, on poor Roddick's serve, he mishit a forehand that spiralled long, long over the baseline.

Federer leapt in the air. Sampras finally clapped. Roddick became one of the most courageous Wimbledon final losers there has been.

Federer defiled the moment by donning a track suit with the number 15 printed on it for the trophy presentation. That was naff, presumptuous and lacking respect for his opponent.

Roddick was resigned to it. "How would you describe what you did today," someone asked. "Lost," he said.

CAPTION(S):

HISTORIC Scoreboard tells the story WIMBLEDON '03 Federer's first slam RECORD-BREAKER Federer thanks fans after his battling win