Wimbledon men’s semifinal: Andy Murray vs. Andy Roddick
The all-Andy semifinal at Wimbledon on Friday should be a terrific matchup, although the home fans certainly will be very biased to native son Andy Murray against American Andy Roddick.
“I’m just going to pretend when they say, ‘Come on, Andy,’ that they mean me,” Roddick said.
Murray, who is looking to become the first Brit to win Wimbledon in more than seven decades, has opened as the -375 favorite on WagerWeb.com.
How much will Roddick have left in the tank? He played an epic five-setter against Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals, winning 6-3 6-7 (10/12) 7-6 (7/1) 4-6 6-4 in four hours on Wednesday.
“I felt fine out there physically. I’m sure I’ll pull up a little bit sore, but that’s to be expected,” Roddick said.
This is his second Grand Slam final this year, as Roddick also reached the final four at the Australian Open. He has reached the final at Wimbledon twice but has yet to win it. This is his first semifinal here since 2005.
Roddick’s lone major title game nearly six years ago at the U.S. Open. That was also the last at any Grand Slam event for an American man, the country’s longest drought in the Open era.
Murray is trying to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936. No British man has won any Grand Slam championship since Perry at the U.S. Open later that year.
The third-seeded Murray had little trouble in the quarterfinals, beating Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-3, 6-2. This is his first Wimbledon semifinal.
Murray has one of the best returns of serve in tennis, while Roddick possesses one of the most vicious service games; Roddick holds the record for the fastest serve in tennis at 155 mph. His fastest serve so far this tournament is 141 mph and so far he has 139 aces, second only to Ivo Karlovic.
But Murray has beaten Roddick six times, including a straight-sets win at Wimbledon in 2006, and only lost twice, so Murray should be plenty confident.
“I feel confident because I’ve won a lot of matches on the grass but every day when I get up to play the matches, I know that I’m going to have to perform very well, and that gets the nerves and the adrenaline going and makes me play better,” he said.
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