For the 9,000th time as a professional tennis player, Roger Federer sent a serve untouched past his opponent waiting for it on the other side.
This one kicked out wide, freezing world no. 1 Novak Djokovic before he attempted to lunge at it, but by that time it was much too late. Federer would hit 12 aces in all in his defeat of Djokovic in the finals of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championship, the seventh time he's won there. He becomes just the fourth player in tennis history to register 9,000 or more aces, following in the footsteps of Goran Ivanisevic, Ivo Karlovic and Andy Roddick. Federer now sits at 9,007.
Federer's never had the biggest serve in the world in terms of speed. You'd never confuse his first serve with that of Roddick's lightning bolts. But he's always been phenomenal, much like with his forehand, at placing the ball in the exact spot your racquet can't reach, and fooling you with what direction he's going with it.
9,000 aces. That is what greatness looks like.
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[Via Washington Post]
