TENNIS in DEPTH.

The British number one remains on course for a fourth successive title after easing to a 6-2 6-2 victory in the French capital. Murray, champion in Bangkok, Tokyo and Shanghai, is now enjoying a career-best 18-match unbeaten run. Murray broke Roddick’s once unrivalled serve twice in both sets, hitting 27 winners along the way to book a last-eight showdown with either Janko Tipsarevic or Tomas Berdych. The 24-year-old set the tone when he broke Roddick’s serve in the first game before holding his own serve. He continued to apply pressure on the American’s serve and produced a stunning backhand to earn three break points in game seven, and duly converted one to go 5-2 up.

Murray, who also crushed the American for the loss of just four games at Queen’s Club in the summer, wrapped up the first set in style with another crisp winner as Roddick seemed to have few answers to the one-way traffic. Things went from bad to worse for A-Rod when Murray immediately broke his serve in the second set before holding serve in the second game. Roddick vented his frustration to umpire Mohamed Lahyani by destroying his racket, earning a code violation for racket abuse as a result, as Murray won the next two games to take a 4-0 lead in the second set. The 29-year-old from Texas then dug in and held serve to get himself on the scoreboard, but Murray hit back immediately with a hold to love to put himself on the brink of victory. Roddick finally tested Murray en route to claiming his fourth game but it was too little, too late as Murray unleashed his sixth and seventh aces of the day to seal an emphatic straight-sets triumph.

Bookmark It

“Playing in Madison Square Garden has always been a dream of mine,” said Sharapova. “Everyone wants to play there at least once in their career. I look forward to coming back to New York for the Showdown.” Roddick added, “I have never had a chance to play at the Garden before and to play Roger there will make it a special night. I am really looking forward to a great event.” “Madison Square Garden has an unparalleled history of great tennis with more than 80 years featuring some of the very best in the game in a unique arena setting,” said Scott O’Neil, president, MSG Sports. “At the BNP Paribas Showdown on March 5th, Roger Federer, Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki will all grace The Garden court and entertain a very New York crowd joining the ranks of tennis greats featured at The World’s Most Famous Arena.” “Having four of the most popular tennis players of the past decade at the BNP Paribas Showdown should make for an exciting night of tennis for the New York fans. This lineup carries on the great tradition of tennis at Madison Square Garden and should form the basis for a great celebration of the sport on Tennis Night in America,” said Jerry Solomon, Executive Producer and President of StarGames. “Tennis Night in America” has annually marked the start of the tennis season in the United States and begins a month of professional events that include the BNP Paribas Open and Sony Ericsson Open. Last year Pete Sampras was the spokesman and over 700 tennis facilities across the country participated.

This amazing tennis exhibition will be played just before the hard court season begins ion the USA.

Bookmark It

Williams has dropped a big hint that she will be playing in the next instalment of the Hopman Cup in Perth, starting in late December. And the 13-time grand slam champion has also indicated she will bring ace Andy Roddick as her playing partner in what would be a mighty US team in the mixed doubles championship. Williams sent out a curious message via her twitter account about her plans for the Australian summer. ”Me and @andyroddick decided to play mixed doubles Australia! We Love Aussie! …… Book it its real!,” said the tweet. And the reason why there is speculation the pair will be in Perth for New Year’s Eve is that the Hopman Cup is the only tournament on the Australian summer tennis calendar with a top-level mixed doubles competition outside the Australian Open. Adding spice to the suggestion is that Roddick hasn’t played men’s doubles, let alone mixed doubles, at a grand slam event for 10 years. Hopman Cup organisers replied to the Williams-Roddick claims via twitter and the comment gave hope that the American duo were coming to town. ”Can’t confirm anything just yet, it was a midnight tweet from Serena in the US, so no word from her agent at this stage,” the tweet said. Williams, working her back to full fitness following injury, is ranked 14th on the women’s tour and earlier this week lost to Australia’s Sam Stosur in the US Open final. Roddick, ranked 14 on the men’s circuit, won the 2003 US Open and is a former world No.1. The pair plan to play in the mixed doubles at the London Olympics next year and could be looking to use the Hopman Cup to fine-tune their game. Williams won the Hopman Cup in her two appearances in 2003 (with James Blake) and 2007 (with Mardy Fish). Should Roddick come to Perth it would be his first time at the event.

Bookmark It

Andy Roddick will take on fellow American John Isner in the semi-finals of the Winston-Salem Open after the duo won their respective quarter-finals against Juan Monaco and Marcos Baghdatis. The 28-year-old did not face a break point, surrendering only nine points on serve in total, and converted three of his five chances on Monaco’s serve. Fourth seed Isner, in contrast, had a far tougher contest. The world number 28 fought back from a set down to defeat the former world number Baghdatis 1-6 6-3 6-4 with the pair set to meet again next week in the first round of the US Open. Roddick will take a 3-1 lead into the match and he said: “You can have a game plan, but it’s a lot tougher to execute. ”A lot of times it’s out of your hands and it’s completely different from the matches I’ve played so far. ”It’s just whoever can scrape a return back on a big point and hope that something good happens. ”The biggest thing is you’ve just got to try and take care of your own serve. ”I don’t often go into a match with the second-best serve, but that will be the case tomorrow.”

In the other semi-final Robin Haase will meet Julien Benneteau. Haase knocked out Alexandr Dolgopolov despite the third seed producing 15 aces. The Dutch player enjoyed more all-round consistency although both players produced a number of double faults – five for Haase and six for his opponent. Haase, though, had more success on his serve as he won 6-4 6-4 in an hour. Benneteau produced an upset when he knocked out Sergiy Stakhovsky who is ranked 72 places above the Frenchman at 41. Stakhovsky served up 12 aces – three more than Benneteau – but also nine double faults as his opponent claimed a 3-6 7-6 (11/9) 6-2 victory, saving a match point in the second-set tie-break.

Bookmark It

Roddick was docked a point, giving his opponent a 2-0 lead in the third set, as Kohlschreiber won 6-7 (5-7) 7-5 6-1. Roddick, who had already been warned for slamming his racquet to the ground, was docked the point for hitting a ball into the stands in Cincinnati. Roddick admitted he had lost his cool but insisted the umpire had over-reacted. ”Obviously it’s a split second thing, as soon as I did it I wanted it back,” said the American, who is battling back to full fitness after injury. ”It was a judgment call for the umpire. I am pretty sure I saw an eight-year-old girl catch it on the way down. He was telling me I hit it as hard as I could. ”It just sucks. I can’t blame him, but I’m sitting here turning a six-week injury into a three-week injury, rehabbing eight hours a day, and a split second decision he interjects himself and it’s done.

“I think he did the right thing, but it’s tough to call,” Kohlschreiber said of the umpire’s decision to dock Roddick a point. ”I tried to stay calm. I thought, hopefully he’s not playing his best tennis now because he’s so pumped.” “I understand where the umpire is coming from but at a certain point, you know, you hit a tennis ball into a stadium, someone goes home with a souvenir, and it pretty much ruins the match from there. Seems counterproductive.”

Bookmark It

Andy Roddick has pulled out of next week’s Montreal Masters with an oblique muscle injury. It’s the second consecutive week he has withdrawn from an event. The Montreal Gazette also reported that fifth-ranked Robin Soderling (wrist), Jurgen Melzer (quad), Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (appendicitis) and Xavier Malisse (personal) also withdrew from the tournament. The 12th-ranked Roddick has been hampered by injuries during the past two years, and just two months ago was forced to pull out of Roland Garros with a shoulder injury. Feliciano Lopez upset the former world No. 1 in the third round of Wimbledon, and playing in the Davis Cup quarterfinals against Spain in his hometown of Austin, Roddick lost to David Ferrer. The American has not played since then and pulled out of Washington this week. Roddick also pulled out of Canada last year, so he isn’t defending any points. He is defending 360 semifinal points in Cincinnati the week after, and just entered the inaugural tournament in Winston-Salem, which is played the week before the U.S. Open. Responding to when he will return on Twitter, Roddick said. “Hopefully I’ll be ready for cincy in 10 days or so…. Fingers crossed.”

Bookmark It

Playing in the U.S. didn’t work in Mardy Fish’s favour. He fought a tough battle against fellow recent Wimbledon quarterfinalist Feliciano Lopez, but suffered a 46 63 36 76(2) 86 loss. Playing in his hometown of Austin, Texas, didn’t deliver good fortune for Andy Roddick either. The former US Open champion couldn’t hold up against the dogged David Ferrer, who scored a 76(9) 75 63 win. “I have too much respect for Ferrer to act like I’m stunned,” Roddick said. “The guy is six in the world for a reason. He played well. I thought I played pretty well for the first two sets, but the third set got away from me a little bit… He beat me tonight.”

There was much talk leading up to this tie about the fast hard court surface the Americans selected – they were hoping it would come off feeling like a slippery ice skating rink to the Spaniards. But, at least after the first day of play, the Spanish team seemed to adjust well to the court without having ice skates strapped on their feet. “Of course, this is not our best surface,” said Albert Costa, the Spanish captain. “We never (would) choose this surface at home. But these guys are very good. They have the talent to play in all kind of surfaces…. But we have to know that still is a lot of work to do. Nothing is over yet, for sure. So we have to fight a lot.”

The last time USA came back from 0-2 down was against Australia in 1934, which proves how difficult it is to climb out of such a deficit. But the lack of success on the opening day – and history not in the American corner – has not dashed the hopes of the American team to turn the tie around. “Obviously it’s an uphill battle,” Roddick said. “We’re not going to be the favorites down 0-2. (But) we’re not out of this.”

Bookmark It

USA and Spain meet for the tenth time with the Americans holding a slim 5-4 lead. This will be the first time these two powerhouse nations have met since the semifinals in Madrid in 2008, which the Spaniards won 4-1. Interestingly, Spain has never defeated USA on away soil. Andy Roddick had been lobbying hard for this tie to be held in his hometown, Austin, and he is certainly playing the host to the rest of his teammates – captain Jim Courier, Wimbledon quarterfinalist Mardy Fish and world No. 1 doubles pair Bob and Mike Bryan.

Roddick held a BBQ at his new home for the team to celebrate the 4th of July and he is incredibly proud that he is able to show his fellow Austinites what this great competition is all about. “Once Austin kind of fit the bill for this tie, to see the fans come out, tickets sell out in an hour, it almost validated the effort,” Roddick said. “I was real happy to see the support Austin and central Texas has been giving this event as far as selling out, as far as the excitement. It’s just nice to see excitement for tennis in this area of the world.” The 16,269 fans at Frank Erwin Center will need to be in full voice because even though Rafael Nadal is on the sidelines for this tie, the team that Spain brings to this very Spanish speaking state is still incredibly powerful.

Spain’s captain Albert Costa leads with world No.6 David Ferrer alongside the experienced Fernando Verdasco, Feliciano Lopez, who beat Roddick at Wimbledon a fortnight ago, and Marcel Granollers. Courier said the team has no mixed feelings about Nadal not being in Austin. They must concentrate on who is across the net and that’s all that matters. “We have a job to do, we need to win three matches,” said Courier, who is in his second tie as captain after USA’s win over Chile in March. “We don’t control who they bring, we just have to control our efforts. We have a task on hand, and that doesn’t change.” Costa acknowledges that this will be a difficult weekend saying playing in Roddick’s home and “his public and his country” is something they will work to rise above. “I have complete trust in these four men in my team and I know they will give 100 per cent on the court and for sure we will try to give our maximum level and we will see what happens,” Costa said.

“The guys have been practicing pretty, the court is a bit fast, the ball is a little light and the conditions are quick, but this is normal because they can choose what they want and they feel good with these conditions. We are trying to practice every day and we are trying to get used and the guys are doing a very good job. We will be ready for Friday.”

Bookmark It