It's the Fourth of July and Roddick's Looking for Glory

Andy Roddick listened to the rhythm of the pouring rain yesterday, but it was Brad Gilbert who was telling him just what he ought to do. In the canniest of moves, the Texan held back on leaving Court 1 when his eager young opponent Mario Ancic gestured to stay on and make the most of a 6-5 lead in the third with the clouds again dumping lightly on Wimbledon. Off they went - even though every other court at Wimbledon was playing on.

While Ricky Nelson lyrics probably do not figure on the turntable of the fast young dude who once compered Saturday Night Live , his savvy coach has been around a little longer and knows a few old tunes to play. As a veteran of Wimbledon, Gilbert knows all about the vagaries of the rain.

Hovering near the exit, he was keen for a break so that Roddick could gather his thoughts, then go back out and save the set. It is exactly what happened as the number two seed advanced to the final with a 6-4 4-6 7-5 7-5 win that stretched the nerves of participants and onlookers alike. It might have seemed insignificant to Ancic - he said later that the break had not bothered him - but it did cut up the rhythm of the match. Had they stayed on and Roddick dropped his serve, the match would have swung in a different direction.

'It's part of Wimbledon's charm,' Roddick said unconvincingly of the rain. 'It's been pretty stressful, but I can see the finish line now and that's where my focus is.'

They began their jousting on Friday evening, just after 6pm, and went off in a drizzle 68 minutes later with Roddick break point down in the second set. When they came back at noon yesterday, Ancic steeled himself to break, nick the set and set up a wonderful struggle in difficult conditions.

He rushed the net bravely, as he had to good effect on Friday, but his backhand volley proved less reliable. He went to the net 112 times from 113 serves, winning 62 per cent of those brave forays, while Roddick stayed back for all of his 121 serves.

While it may seem a victory for the baseline grinder, it was not wholly a rout for brute strength. Ancic troubled the American many times prowling the net. The few occasions they traded shots from deep, Roddick usually prevailed, so Ancic was entitled to believe his best chance lay in going forward.

He was undone somewhat by an erratic if dangerous serve. Roddick's, the fastest in the sport, held up well and, at key moments, he unleashed it with as much fury as he could muster, trying to blow the Croat away. His closing fusillade in the third said it all: a 136mph ace, followed by a 137mph winner and, after dropping a point, a closing ace of 133mph.

What we have now is a delicious final, the first at Wimbledon between the top two seeds since Jimmy Connors beat John McEnroe in 1982. The trend of unseeded hopefuls making it to the final has been broken. Had Ancic done so, he would have been the third unseeded finalist in four years, after Goran Ivanisevic in 2001 and Mark Philippoussis last year.

Roddick, though, rightly stands alongside Roger Federer at the top of the tennis mountain. Those who love the beauty and subtlety of the game will want the Swiss to win, but anyone who appreciates grit and power will recognise in Roddick a gunfighter out of the Connors mould.

His serve, as ever, will be the key. It was a little way short of perfect yesterday, his 11 aces two fewer than Ancic's, although he won 79 per cent of points on his first serve, hitting a fastest of 145mph in the second set.

In an era that McEnroe and others continue to tell us is short of characters, Roddick is probably the best we have got, although he is not to everyone's taste, particularly in Croatia. Roddick beat Ancic's compatriot, Ivan Ljubicic, in the second round on the way to winning the US Open and the Croat was eager to let it be known that 'no one in the locker room likes Roddick'.

The American is very much a product of his sur roundings. Originally from Omaha, Nebraska, he grew up 10 miles away from the student city of Austin on the Colorado River. But he is no hick and he is here to win Wimbledon. It might be beyond the American today, even if it is 4 July, but Roddick has the spirit to keep coming back until the title is his. And he has a coach who wrote a book called Winning Ugly .

Roddick wants to win at least four grand slams - ugly or otherwise - and is desperate not to be remembered as the worst number one player in the world. That is the measure of his ambition and the size of the challenge he presents for Federer, who trounced him in the semi-finals here last year.