By James Borg · July 5, 2009 · 7:04 PM

LONDON --  Day Thirteen at the All England Lawn Tennis Club means the two survivors who managed to cling to the wreckage out of the 128 who started the journey have been rewarded with a place in the Men's Final.

One of those, Roger Federer, has been doing that for the last seven years. His opponent Sunday was the rejuvenated Andy Roddick. The American got fitter. He took on Larry Stefanki as his new coach. He regained his will to win. He got to the final.

This was the pair's fourth meeting at Wimbledon and their third final matchup.

For Federer it was a chance to create history by becoming the first man to win 15 Grand Slam titles. He completed the career Grand Slam last month at Roland Garros winning his 14th and equaling Pete Sampras' all-time record. He was also bidding to win his sixth Wimbledon title.

The match started in good style with Roddick holding serve comfortably. Games went with serve and there was an interruption after the third game with spontaneous applause from the crowd. They were staring toward the Royal Box as a man in a suit took his place in a front-row seat -- none other than Pete Sampras who'd flown in this morning from California, just for one night, to see the man who might break his record. It's the first time Sampras has been here since 2002.

Games went with serve until Roddick scored an all-important break to take the first set 7- 5. The air of invincibility seemed to drain from five-time champion Federer. However, he kept up with Roddick in the second set, both men holding serve to force a tiebreak. Things looked good for the American as he took a 6-2 lead in the breaker and the Centre Court crowd buzzed with excitement. Yes, some of them wanted to see records broken, but at the same time, Roddick is a popular figure with the Wimbledon crowds and the memory of his loses to his opponent is all too familiar to the fans. But this is tennis. How quickly things can change. Suddenly Federer hit back to haul himself up to take the next six points and the tiebreaker 8-6. One set all.

By now the atmosphere was electric.  The third set went to a tiebreak. Surely the American would reign supreme this time, bearing in mind his impressive tiebreak record.  But Federer put on a show of supreme serving to edge through on the tiebreak 7-5. By now, Sampras' neighbors in the Royal Box were all exchanging little slips of paper with each other. Who am I talking about? Past champions. There was Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver, Ilie Nastase and Sampras himself, with messages on pieces of paper. Reminded me a little of the school classroom. Sitting behind them were such luminaries as Woody Allen, Russell Crowe, Henry Kissinger, and Sen. George Mitchell all totally absorbed in a magnificent match.

Two sets to one to the Swiss but Roddick would not lie down as he put his impressive serve to good effect and also broke Federer to take the fourth set 6-3. By now we knew we were in for a nail-biter. Memories of last year's Nadal-Federer epic came flooding back.

Federer was fortunate in serving first in the fifth set and the two men put on a show of heavy serving as they held serve each time. The pressure on Roddick was immense as he was always playing catch-up on the scoreboard. The match turned into an epic thriller with rallies of 17-21 strokes and ace after ace from both men. When it got to 14-14 a few loose shots from Roddick handed the vital break to Federer and then he held serve to take the set 16-4 and his sixth Wimbledon title.  The final set was the longest in men's singles final history at 95 minutes

The final scoreline 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14 is sufficient to tell the story of the content and tenacity of the two players during the match. To say that Roddick was really disappointed, as some commentators opined, is probably inaccurate. He looked positively distraught. The crowd hailed him as he thanked all four corners for their support and then once again slumped in his chair, with his head down. That's three runner-up finishes at the hands of Federer on Centre Court.

Asked how it compared to his 2004 and 2005 final defeats, the hugely upset American said: " I think it's worse." He paid tribute to Federer, saying: "Roger is a true champion and he deserves everything he gets."

Federer, understandably elated, said: "It was a crazy match, an unbelievable end and my head is still spinning. This could have gone on for a few more hours I think."

The worry for Andy Roddick and other hopefuls is that he may gone on for a few more years.

Federer’s pregnant wife has told him that she wants the new child to be able to see him playing in a few years time.