All credit to A-Rod, who toughed out the ungodly heat to bodyblow Nole into retirement in the fourth set. He was clearly the fitter athlete out there and absolutely deserves the win.
Of course, you know Nole's retirement is going to just add rocket fuel to the inferno that is the Nole Witch Trials. The poor kid can't win. On ESPN the commentators were all saying that it was useless for him to continue. Andy was basically taunting him to retire and doing everything to get him to retire. And yet fans I'm sure are going to lambaste him for not letting Andy get a clean win.
I get it. I wish the kid had stuck it out and taken his beating too. But I also recognize that there could not have been anything tougher for him to do than to throw in the towel to Andy Fucking Roddick. Anyone else fine, but given the history between these two you know that had to have been the worst feeling. ESPECIALLY as the defending champion of a Grand Slam.
I'm curious to see if this is a chronic fitness issue or an acute one. I'm inclined to think that this is an acute one, that he didn't do a good job recovering from his 3am match with Marcos two nights ago. For a dude who has a full team around him, that's pretty JV. But if it's a chronic one he's in for a long year.
