Marcos Daniel serves to Taylor Dent at the Campbells Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport on Monday.

Journal photo / Glenn Osmundson

NEWPORT — A day after Roger Federer’s epic five-set victory over Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon final, pros who watched at the Newport Casino were still buzzing about the 4-hour-and-16-minute spectacle.

“Incredible,” said Prakash Amritraj, the 2008 Hall of Fame runner-up and a first-round winner Monday.

“Unbelievable,” said the young American Jesse Levine. “Andy was running down balls at 14 — all in the fifth set. Are you kidding me?”

Levine is only 21, but he knows Federer better than anyone in the draw of the $500,000 Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships. Two years ago, while still playing for the University of Florida, he received an invitation to spend two weeks in Dubai hitting and training with the Swiss great.

“I thought it was a joke . . . I thought it was one of my college buddies playing a prank on me, but it was for real at the time,” Levine said Monday after defeating Chris Guccione of Australia, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2).

“It was while I was in school still, so that’s why I thought it was one of my buddies messing with me, playing a joke. At first I kind of took it back, ‘Okay, who is this?’ It actually was an IMG personnel, so I was pretty happy about that and couldn’t say no to that, that’s for sure.”

Levine suspects that the International Management Group picked him because he had trained at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., and earned a reputation as a hard worker.

“Everybody thinks it’s because I’m lefty, but he didn’t know I was lefty until I pulled out my racquet. . . Roger just asked for someone that works hard and was going to give it all every day, and I guess I was that lucky guy.”

Levine said the temperature broke 100 degrees every day and that he brought three pairs of shoes to practice. Federer, he said, “was going through shirts, shoes. It was unbelievable. I’ve never been in any kind of weather like that.”

Levine learned a lot.

“Where do I start? I got to play with the guy every day. Just watching his habits and going to eat dinner and lunch with him was kind of a surreal experience for me. He is so calm, so down-to-earth. When it comes to the big points he just takes his time. He’s such a clutch player. He just knows when the big moments are there, and he knows when to step it up. He’s definitely an amazing tennis player.”

So the Greatest Player Ever benefited from hitting with a college kid from Florida? Levine laughed and said, “No, I think it was more like I benefited from being his practice partner.”

He applied the lessons Monday in his 7-6, 7-6 victory over Chris Guccione of Australia.

Amritraj, who defeated Danai Udomchoke of Thailand, 6-1, 6-4, Monday, watched the beginning of the Wimbledon final and left to go to 11 o’clock Mass.

 “I came back for the fifth set, and it was incredible. I mean, I love Federer, but, gosh, I was pulling for Andy, man,” he said.

 “The one thing I didn’t understand is you get to a match like that, even the greatest players tend to look a little tight. Sampras if he’s in a fifth-set breaker still looks maybe a little nervous, but (Federer) was swinging at 14-all like it was 1-all in the first. Tough to describe,” he added.

Taylor Dent, a contemporary of Roddick’s, also was pulling for the American.

“I’m happy for Federer. I don’t think we’ve had many better ambassadors for the sport than Roger, and I’m happy to see him kind of take over the title of best player ever,” the 2002 Hall of Fame champion said. “I think he may have taken that over with the French Open win. But, you know, I’m pro-American so it hurts me to see Andy lose a final. I know how hard he’s worked to get back up in there, and it hurts me as an American to see Pete Sampras kind of de-throned a little bit. But that’s okay. Federer deserves it. I think there’s little doubt with anybody that he’s definitely the best that’s ever played.”

What do the pros see when they watch a classic like that?

“You notice a lot. As a player you try to pick up some things, whether it’s Federer’s acceleration on his forehand or the way Roddick snaps his wrist on the serve. You also get caught up in the emotional aspect of it,” Amritraj said.

“Consistency,” said Dent. “When those guys play a bad game, it’s really not a bad game. They have a couple of mistakes here and there, and that’s normally the difference. It really motivates me and shows me what I need to do to compete with those guys. They are playing solid games every time, and that’s what has to happen. That’s the difference. You go out and watch everybody who plays out here. If he plays a good game, you’ll say, ‘Oh, wow, he could be Top 10, Top 5 for sure. But then you watch him play a bad game, and you’ll say, ‘Oh, wow, now I see why he’s ranked where he’s ranked.

“That’s what stands out to me the most, consistency of execution. With Andy it’s his first serve mostly and with Federer it’s obviously his first serve and his ability to move the ball around the court.”

Federer now holds a 19-2 career advantage over Roddick and has defeated him in three Wimbledon finals, one U.S. Open final, a Wimbledon semifinal and an Australian Open semifinal. Can Roddick beat him in a major?

“He’s either going to have to be a better defender or he’s going to have to be a better attacker,’’ Dent said of Roddick. “Right now I feel like he’s stuck in between two games. He doesn’t really hurt you a lot from the baseline after the serve has gone in, and he doesn’t defend quite as well as [Andy] Murray or [Rafael] Nadal does.

 “Andy’s a tough guy. He’s going to bounce back, and I definitely see him winning a slam before the end of his career,” Levine said. “He was playing with probably the best player that ever played the game of tennis out there, and he had some chances. Obviously his confidence has got to be up, and hopefully he’s keeping his head up because that was amazing tennis out there.”

mszostak@projo.com