Roddick still must fix holes in his game

In Andy Roddick's Grand Slam delusion, one inch on one shot stopped him one match short of his first Wimbledon final.

If he truly believes that, the only person he's fooling is himself.

It wasn't that one shot in the first-set heartbreaker or the 7-minute lapse that followed, as his coach, Brad Gilbert, suggested, that made all the difference between victory and a 7-6 (6), 6-3, 6-3 semifinal loss Friday to Switzerland's Roger Federer.

Roddick went down because he still has too many holes in his game and isn't yet the complete player the 21-year-old Federer is now and that the 20-year-old American very well could be in the future.

Nothing about Roddick's loss diminished the sense that he has the talent to win Grand Slam titles, though it's still far from certain he will achieve the heights of Pete Sampras or Andre Agassi. He is America's best young player, not yet the world's, and could yet break through this summer at the U.S. Open.

Federer exposed Roddick's flaws at the net and his tendency to get caught in the no man's land at midcourt. Roddick still has much to discover about disguising his serves, mixing up speeds and directions. He has to work on becoming a better returner. Learning to lob wouldn't hurt.

More than anything, he has to find ways to win the big points under pressure, not blow them by going for too much or cutting the margin of error too finely.

Under Gilbert's tutelage, Roddick made huge strides over the past few weeks, winning his first grass tournament at Queen's and getting to the semifinals here after third-round exits in his first two Wimbledons. He showed more poise, taming his temper without sacrificing emotion, and he played to his strengths -- the fastest serve in tennis and one of the best forehands.

It was ironic, then, that both those shots let him down at a most crucial moment when he served for the first set with a 6-5 lead in the tiebreaker.

Roddick hit the serve he wanted, a 127 mph ball that stretched Federer wide, but it wasn't good enough for an ace or a service winner. Federer had been reading Roddick's serves from the start, getting a racket even on those in the 135 mph range, and he pecked this one back in play.

Roddick's eyes grew wide when he saw a sitter ripe for the kill in midcourt. He pounced on the ball with a forehand -- only to watch it thud against the tape at the top of the net and bounce back toward him as he stared in disbelief.

"If I would have had about an inch more height on it," Roddick said, "the set probably would have been over. That's just the fine line. I was just an inch away from winning that first set."

Shaken, Roddick played the next point too tightly -- "I lifted up a little bit early on it and it sat up and he just munched on it," he said -- and he fell behind 7-6. Federer then served out the set, fended off his first break point of the match in the first game of the second set, broke Roddick for the first time, and raced to a 3-0 lead.

The match and a place in his first Grand Slam final were suddenly disappearing from Roddick's view.

"There was a 7-minute stretch there, from the end of the first to the first three games of the second and the match turned there," Gilbert said. "Federer is a front-runner and all of a sudden he gets out of jail at 6-5 ... and the guy's booming with confidence.

"It was a big moment. Maybe if "Roddick "wins that first set, he breaks him the first game and the other guy's down and instead of being 7-6, 6-3 down, maybe he's 7-6, 6-3 up. That's the separation sometimes in any sport -- 5-8 minutes you don't get back. ... Turn that 7 minutes around to his favor, I think he wins the match."

Maybe, but there are no do-overs like that. Athletes can't live in a world of what-ifs and could-have-beens. They deal in the cold truth of scores and learn from a loss only when they look at the larger issues.

Federer is 4-0 against Roddick and there's a reason for that. Federer has a knack for reading Roddick's serve, getting enough of his racket on them to cut down on aces. Roddick had only a pair of aces in each of the first two sets and none in the third. He had 64 aces in his five matches on the way to the semis. Federer, though serving somewhat slower, had 17 aces.

"I don't know if there's anybody out there more talented," Roddick said. "He's a great athlete. He's so quick out there. There's not much he doesn't have. Now it seems like he's putting it together upstairs and it's all coming together for him."

Roddick has plenty of talent, too. His task now is to put it together upstairs, as well, and make it all come together for himself.

Steve Wilstein is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press.