Federer’s victory – a gruelling 5-7 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5) 3-6 16-14 success – secured his sixth title at the All England Club and took him once more to the top of the world rankings ahead of the injured Rafa Nadal, who beat him at the same stage last year.
“I’m still processing the whole thing because a lot has happened in the last few weeks,” the Swiss told the BBC.
“It was such a historic day in tennis and me being the main character in this... I have so many pictures going through my mind.
“It’s hard to switch off. I want to see the match point again, I want to read something about what the fans saw, how the media saw it.
“I had about two hours sleep, but it doesn’t matter. I slept enough to last three weeks and I still feel great.”
Federer held back in celebrating the historic achievement out of respect for the glorious efforts of Roddick, who has now lost three times in Wimbledon finals to the 27-year-old, and in part due to tiredness after playing out the longest final set in grand slam final history.
“It was a combination of being maybe a little bit sad for Andy after seeing Rafa was sad for me at Wimbledon last year,” said Federer.
“I felt like it was such a gruelling match, everybody was tired and felt for Andy so I didn’t want to make a drama about it but I knew the importance and that it was one of the greatest moments in my tennis career.
“Of course I always feel people should be happy for the guy who won and not for the guy who lost.
“I just kept it together after being so close to victory for so long, it was just a big explosion, and then after that it was all over and it sunk in and took me a while.”
Federer was pushed to the limit by Roddick, who squanderer four set points in the second set tie-break when the American was already up by a set.
“I didn’t think I was going to win that break being down 6-2 but then at the same time I could have been up a break in the first set when I missed that forehand by very little,” said Federer.
“In a four hour match you’re always going to go through good times and bad times and those were the bad times but you have to be able to turn those around.”
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