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Tennis isn’t a big spectator sport or bet on in big amounts in the United States, but it’s fair to say that every American tennis fan was looking forward to one match in this year’s Australian Open, and that was Andy Roddick against Roger Federer.

Wish granted.

Roddick, the 26-year-old American, lost 15 pounds in an offseason training regimen, and he looks good in Melbourne. He advanced to the semifinals when defending champion Novak Djokovic of Serbia retired in the fourth set of their quarterfinal match trailing 6-7 (3-7), 6-4, 6-2, 2-1. The intense heat was taking its toll on Djokovic.

Federer said Djokovic’s retirement took nothing away from the way Roddick played. “Andy forced him,” Federer said. “Andy pushed him to the limits. Hats off to Andy.”

With Djokovic and Andy Murray out, Roger Federer is the WagerWeb.com odds-on favorite to win the first major of the season despite being seeded behind Rafael Nadal. Federer, who is looking to tie Pete Sampras’ record of 14 career Grand Slam titles, routed No. 8 seed Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina 6-3, 6-0, 6-0 in the quarters. Federer had to battle hard to overcome Tomas Berdych in five sets in the previous round, but the quarterfinal was no contest.



“I didn’t expect a result like this. This is not usual,” said Federer. “When all of a sudden it clicks, it’s a nice feeling. I tried out a few things and they all seemed to work.”

Federer, a three-time Aussie Open champ, has dominant against Roddick, with the Swiss star going 15-2 overall and 6-0 in majors. Thus it’s no wonder he is a big -850 favorite on WagerWeb.com.

However, Roddick did win the last time they played, and both of his victories came on hardcourts. The American broke a run of 11 straight defeats by Federer with victory in their most recent meeting in Miami last year.

“I think it helps. It’s certainly not going to hurt at all,” said Roddick, who is +425 on WagerWeb.com against Federer.

Roddick is in his fourth Australian Open semifinal (’03, ‘05, ‘07, ‘09), and he’s trying to become the first American to reach the final since Andre Agassi won the title in 2003. He has dropped just two sets in this tournament. But he will need to improve on serve. In his six career matches against Federer in majors, Roddick has 47 aces and has been broken 27 of 54 times. Federer has 83 aces and has been broken just eight times.

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