Djokovic answers Roddick with a win.

There are thousands of instances in the history of mankind where an underdog, or a perceived weaker opponent, comes out firing after being ridiculed, to win the big prize. And the big mouth is left with nothing.

Roddick may not have meant it just exactly as it sounded to Djokovic. But that’s irrelevant.

Roddick wants to hear the crowd laugh and roar at him during the post match interview. He just loves the limelight. Roddick’s comments were just another effort to be funny. He just didn’t realize how badly it will hurt him both on and off the court.

This is another opportunity lost for Roddick. He was coming in with impressive stats and momentum. If he had taken Djokovic out, he could have been in the finals considering where Federer is currently with his game. And anything could have happened in the finals against Nadal, knowing how easily he gets aced.

But this has to be an extremely high price to pay for a lesson that Roddick will remember and utilize for the rest of his life. There’s a reason Laver, Sampras and Federer are low key greats of the game. They know from personal experience how one remark / game can ignite a career that can take down everything and everybody in it’s path.

Could Roddick have won if he had not annoyed Djokovic? Maybe. Knowing how close Roddick came to extending it to the fifth set, you have to take everything into account to identify the reason(s) for the loss. And you cannot ignore that, can you?

Federer’s remark towards Djokovic’s parents achieved the same result. You see, a person assumes a completely new identity when his manhood is challenged. Sometimes even life is not considered dearer than swallowing that indignity. There are many examples all around us that substantiate that.

Add the age of 21 to it, and you are looking at a person devoid of all logic. He gets that tunnel vision to the exclusion of everything. Many heinous crimes and glorious achievement have emanated from that scenario. What do they say? ‘Wounds inflicted by words take longer to heal than the ones with swords and guns’.

Over the last two years, Djokovic has clearly proven to be a better player than Roddick. But Roddick’s decision to skip Olympics and churn out two impressive wins against Gulbis and Gonzalez, gave hope to his fans that this may be his time. Besides, Djokovic in recent months has been unable to sustain the title of being the best player on hard courts, not to mention the five setter he had to endure against Robredo, a clay court specialist, if there is any such thing anymore.

So there was some real hope not just here but in the next two matches as well. It’s hard to imagine Roddick being any kind of threat by the time the next US Open rolls around.

But Djokovic deserves props for turning it around to face Federer in the semis. Djokovic obviously has the edge so far, albeit a slight one, but with what’s at stake for both these jokers and the history between them, it could turn out to be a more entertaining match than the final. Why?

Because if Nadal is at full speed, there may not be any fourth or the fifth set, and if it’s Federer, bagel production may not be that big of a stretch.