Roger Federer insisted on Sunday that the achievement of winning an historic 15th Grand Slam title has not been diminished by the injury-enforced absence of old rival Rafael Nadal.

Federer won Wimbledon for the sixth time on Sunday with an epic 5-7, 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 16-14 win over Andy Roddick, a victory which allowed him to pass Pete Sampras's record of 14 majors. The Swiss star passed that mark with a first victory at the French Open and on Sunday regained the Wimbledon trophy he lost in 2008 to Nadal who was absent this year because of a knee injury.

But Federer believes his record should not be devalued by the absence of the Spaniard who has a 13-7 winning record over the Swiss star. "I don't think it should. In tennis, that's the way it goes. Everybody expected Andy Murray to be in the final here. He wasn't. It's not the mistake of the one who wins at the end," said Federer. "Of course, I would have loved to play Rafa again. But, then again, I've also played Andy Roddick now in three great Wimbledon finals and I think he deserves credit, too, for playing so well. "You never know how Rafa would have played, but it's sad he couldn't even give it a fair chance. "I'm happy at least that I became No. 1 in the world by winning the tournament, not just by him not playing at all, or me playing decent or someone else playing decent and getting to No. 1. That's not the way it's supposed to be."

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