What If? Possibly The Greatest Question to The Federer Era Of Tennis

What if the Rain Delay at Wimbledon 2004 had never happened?

Some of you must be thinking, after looking at the picture on this article, "How does Roddick play into this?" Well my job is to tell you how.

Going into the Rain Delay Roddick was up 4-2, and he was serving lights out. In that set it would have been very unlikely that Fed would have broken Roddick back. Assuming that Roddick holds on, wins the third set, and keeps his momentum going win the Wimbledon Championship, how would history have changed?

The Reason that Roddick changed his game so much was because he thought that working on his weaknesses was the only way he could beat Federer. Clearly that hasn't worked out, but Roddick's forehand isn't as good as it used to be.  

What could have changed if Roddick had the confidence to go into a match with Federer  saying "I can beat him", instead of wondering, "Am I good enough to beat him."

Roddick has acknowledged that he thought that Wimbledon final was one the best matches he has ever played. The fact that he still lost in 4 sets, after playing that good, was more of a testament to how well Federer changed his game in the rain delay.

Roddick's level went a down, and Fed's went way up. Without the rain delay, I doubt Fed could have increased his level as much as he did. Similarly, I doubt that Roddick would have lost any momentum.

The fact that Roddick believed his best wasn't good enough to beat Federer, or even make it really close, is what changed him more than anything. Roddick always knew his best would be required to beat Fed, but when he thought his best wasn't enough, he just allowed Federer to run away with all of those grand slams.

I mean, Lleyton Hewitt was never gonna stop him, and Safin was too inconsistent.

I acknowledge that Roger would still beat Roddick most of the time, but a lot of Roddick's early round exits in '04, the '05 US, '06 Aussie, '06 Wimbledon, and so on had to do with his game changing.

If he had not changed, he may have advanced further at those tournaments, and maybe taken away a couple of Fed's slams. It may have even effected rankings for the future.

After he changed his game to beat Fed, Connors worked to bring some of it back. Roddick's lethal forehand, however, is still missing. The one area of his game which could stand up to Fed, is missing. Would he have kept it if he had won?

Andy Roddick lost his forehand, and his only chance of beating Roger Federer, during the second rain delay at the '04 Wimbledon Final. He hasn't found it yet, and he may never find it again.