Federer and Roddick played out the longest men’s singles final by number of games (77) with the Swiss prevailing 5-7 7-6 7-6 3-6 16-14 in a match lasting over four hours.
Federer served a career-high 50 aces and broke Roddick just once to win his 15th Grand Slam title and surpass Pete Sampras in the all-time list.
It was also the third time Federer had beaten Roddick in a Wimbledon final after losses in 2004 and 2005.
After the match, Roddick told Sampras: “I tried, sorry Pete” and departed Centre Court while Federer took in the celebrations.
Now in an interview with CNN Sport on the tenth anniversary of his final with Federer, Roddick revealed the respectful decision the Swiss made to not over-celebrate with his support team when they returned to the locker room.
“It’s not like separate locker rooms or anything else, so I walked in and I was pretty devastated,” Roddick said.
“I was in disbelief and shock and a lot of emotions, and his team comes in.
“They should have been celebrating. Absolutely. I saw him out of the corner of my eye, he kind of gave them one of these ‘Be quiet’ (signs) and point to me and they walked out and went about their business in another part of the All England Club.
“I thought that was considerate. I thought it was probably unnecessary given that’s a whole life of work.
“But it was kind of a microcosm of maybe the way he thinks a little bit.”
Roddick then hailed Federer’s ability to stay so relaxed and calm despite the attention and pressure on his shoulders.
“I don’t think he’s naive enough to say, ‘Oh, I’m just another guy playing tennis,'” Roddick said.
“He doesn’t think that and he shouldn’t, because he’s not. But I think he understands the power that he has and I think he is inherently a really, really true, honest, good person.
“But my biggest source of jealously is watching him practice, and it’s free and it’s easy. It doesn’t seem like there’s a lot of stress the day before a slam.
“He’s still saying hello to everyone in between points and he’s able to kind of operate with this ease and calmness.”
