Wimbledon - Reed: Federer will be dancing with joy

Eurosport - Sat, 04 Jul 20:52:00 2009

Eurosport-Yahoo! blogger Simon Reed expects Wimbledon finalist Roger Federer to be ecstatic after Andy Roddick beat Briton Andy Murray.

TENNIS andy roddick (usa) having beaten andy murray at 2009 wimbledon's semifinal. NOTxINxCHN - 0

Right now, I expect that Roger Federer will be dancing around in his hotel room because Andy Roddick beating Britain's Andy Murray represents the perfect result for him.

Of late, Federer has enjoyed good matches against Roddick, which the Swiss has invariably won; and Federer crushed the sixth seed in both of their previous meetings in a Wimbledon final.

I expect the five-times champion to win the final pretty easily now, and that is a real shame because a Murray-Federer final would have been enthralling.

The atmosphere of the final is clearly not going to be as big as it would if Murray had won the semi-final, and Roddick-Federer matches rarely make for good contests - but at least the American will not go down without a fight.

I think that Federer will feel more pressure in this final than in other years because he is attempting to overhaul Pete Sampras's record of 14 Grand Slams.

On the other hand, Roddick has no pressure at all because he will view whatever happens in the final as a bonus.

I really feel that having no pressure may well suit Roddick, and he will be able to go out on Centre Court and swing freely.

In the semis the pressure was all on Murray and, although I felt that the Brit coped with it well, Roddick simply had nothing to lose.

The match was on a knife-edge, and could have gone either way, but Roddick had just enough aggression to take him through.

I think Roddick over-performed, producing a very mature performance to out-think Murray.

Murray's second serve was pretty vulnerable at times, and Roddick attacked it at every opportunity.

Normally when the match reaches its defining moments, Murray steps up his intensity and becomes more aggressive, but not in this match.

In the tie-breaks he was quite tentative, and in the games leading up to them he struck me as pretty passive in his approach.

Murray paid the price for his hesitancy at times, but credit to Roddick for seizing the initiative.

Roddick completely surprised me with the manner of his performance, and he always found a way of responding to Murray's advances and countering them.

This will go down as a pretty big shock, as I never really saw Roddick as someone who could reach another Grand Slam final.

It was an outstanding effort from the American, and a lot of credit must go to his coach Larry Stefanki, who got such a good performance from his player.

The feature of Roddick's game which surprised me the most was the quality of his backhand, which was magnificent today and put Murray on the back foot.

I think Murray will have been pretty content with what he did out there, but there are a few things he probably would have done differently in hindsight.

When he looks back on the match, I think he will feel as though he was not attacking enough when it really came down to the crunch.

Murray will rue the fact that he was not aggressive enough, and he played a few of the key points with too little venom.

People will write off the Scot at their peril, because his performance graph in Grand Slams is only going up and up.

I would certainly not be surprised if Murray was knocking on the door to be world number one before too long.

I think he could well be the world number two very shortly, and the number one in a year or so - do not doubt that he can achieve that.

Simon Reed / Eurosport

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  1. could be that the eurosport's contract is under­ review and they must do whatever they can, even if it­ is delusional, to get brownie points for renewal. Sad,­ sad, sad, so it is. reed needs help, no original ideas

    From CHARLES E, on Sat 4 Jul 8:40PM

  2. could be that the eurosport's contract is under­ review and they must do whatever they can, even if it­ is delusional, to get brownie points for renewal. Sad,­ sad, sad, so it is.

    From CHARLES E, on Sat 4 Jul 8:39PM

  3. Simon Reed is said to be the head of the commentary­ team of Eurosport with more than 100 commentators.­ Google for it.

    From Casalpusterlengho, on Sat 4 Jul 8:32PM

  4. sumanth, reed really believes that mess

    From CHARLES E, on Sat 4 Jul 8:31PM

  5. mr simon reed, you guys in the media did the same thing­ to roddick long before his last match: federer/murray­ final; done deal. here you go assuming again, and, you­ kno what assuming does right? it makes an @#$% - u -­ me. you still believe what you have written here, boi?­ because it is andy's 3rd time to the trough, roger­ is very concerned and not dancing. we shall see; we­ shall see. the fat lady ain't even in the park yet,­ so watch the page son.

    From CHARLES E, on Sat 4 Jul 8:25PM

  6. I have a feeling that Simon Reed writes such articles­ for a reason. I am amazed at the number of comments­ people are posting and that includes me and I am­ beginning to wonder if there is a cheap publicity stunt­ involved here where the Eurosport staff unleash Reed to­ write all non-sense knowing that such articles bring in­ more hits to their site and articles. I might be wrong­ but apart from this I am failing to understand why­ Eurosport would let Simon Reed write such illogical­ articles. ???

    From sumanth, on Sat 4 Jul 8:15PM

  7. HAHA YES HE IS DANCING BUT NOT IN A HOTEL ROOM ..­ HE OWNS A HOUSE NEAR WIMBLEDON ..MIGHTY REED

    From ozlenhakan, on Sat 4 Jul 8:03PM

  8. StrephonKW: Impressively formulated advice for Roddick­ (and I hope they will do help him to succeed). I do­ explicitly disagree with the machine thing, though, and­ maybe to your displeasure I have the machine attribute­ kept for Roddick, from my point of view and I tell you­ why: AR is a great player, no doubt about it, but he­ has not a very flexible game, if flexible at all, which­ is the attribute of his reminding me of a machine, in­ spite of his impressive will and dedication towards­ tennis. Contrary to many others, I didn't get the­ impression that he played a great match against Andy­ Murray (although it proved effective enough). He has­ had several other matches losing (and winning) against­ RF, in which he has been playing far better. With this­ I do not mean that he will be chanceless on Sunday. On­ the contrary.

    RF on the other hand has the ability to­ play AGAINST his counterpart and WITH his counterpart,­ a flexibility in play and style adaption which is­ unique (and may remind you of the scanning, learning­ and adaptive abilities of a machine). I assure you, his­ qualities as a tennis player may give you the­ impression of being machine-like, but they are, as his­ often cited personal weaknesses after match-losses and­ towards his opponents, simply human attributes.

    From Casalpusterlengho, on Sat 4 Jul 7:50PM

  9. Are you some kind of idiot Reed, anyone who watched­ roddick tactically batter murray would be bricking it­ about playing him, even the great one

    From rugbymad666, on Sat 4 Jul 7:21PM

  10. Go Roddick! You have your perfect game now. Just stick­ to it - serving power and aggressive returns, with­ plenty of net points made. Federer is a machine.­ Don't try to match him or counter him. Be your now­ consistant self doing what you most do well to win­ points. Don't talk about Federer, think about­ Federer, praise Federer. You need all your focus and­ energy for Roddick. Be Roddick. Forget Federer. But if­ you let Federer into your head, watch out. You have­ choice there to keep him outside yourself as that­ ball-hitting machine across the net from you. Hit the­ ball, not Federer! Okay ...

    From StrephonKW, on Sat 4 Jul 7:18PM

  11. Well, I think I finally figure it out who Simon Reed­ is. Most probably, Reed would a secret partner of the­ bookmakers. Now Mr. Reed should be dancing around in­ his own bed room while a lot of his followers loosing­ their money.

    From CK, on Sat 4 Jul 7:09PM

  12. Its not federer´s fault that djokovic and murray­ couldnt go farther so they can face him....federer lost­ one set this wimbledon, and it was against a man that­ recently beat djokovic at roland garros...nowadays, the­ only players deserving the title of best is roger and­ rafa....all the others are contenders, in other words­ how can you explain federer and nadal sharing 11 of the­ last 12 grand slams???

    From scourge_werepire, on Sat 4 Jul 7:08PM

  13. I GAVE THE FULL FREEDOM TO SIMON REED TO WRITE @#$% IN­ THIS WEBSITE. SO , IF I GOT A VERY LOW RATING , I MAY­ BE FIRE SIMON REED.

    From ozlenhakan, on Sat 4 Jul 7:06PM

  14. someone wrote MURRAY - HENMAN IN A KILT- i like that

    From karl.tosner, on Sat 4 Jul 6:52PM

  15. lyza alll rafa FANS ARE LOSER LIKE THE­ PLAYER..................RAFA IS A DISGRACE­ ...........ROGER FEDERR =WORD CLASS
    COME ON­ ROGER!!
    COME ON LIVERPOOL
    COME ON TORRES
    RADAL IS A­ LOSER............HAHAHAHA.
    COME ON ROGER

    From Bratu, on Sat 4 Jul 6:45PM

  16. Reed, what do you know about the optimal level of­ agressiveness from murray

    From Hans G, on Sat 4 Jul 6:30PM

  17. Andy Roddick played well yesterday so lets give him­ some credit.Good luck in the final Andy it will be so­ tough for you Roger head to head 18-2 what can we say­ history in the making i think.

    From AJ, on Sat 4 Jul 6:19PM

  18. Oh God, someone save us. We people keep on hoping that­ Mr. Reed would pick some kind of writing skills but he­ is going worst. He writes about Murray as if he is­ another world beater like FedEx, Borg or Sampras. It is­ ridiculous. In fact, I think due to this hype, praise­ and pressure of British media Murray is not able to­ play his natural game in crucial game and looses his­ focus, which require to win a grad slam. Media should­ leave him alone for sometime and stop writing him as a­ World beater or who can beat Roger.

    One has to agree­ that Roger was only person in open era who was­ considered as invincible and after he lost several­ matches continuously with RAFA, he lost little of his­ mantle in a small period and few people could able to­ beat Roger in that duration (Novak, Murray few to­ name). But, ever since he beat RAFA in Madrid final he­ got his mind back. Once, he controls his mind guy like­ Murray is a soft Cake. And, Wimbledon Final hope we­ have a great final and Roger gets his record. Does not­ matter if he wins or not he has already registered­ himself as one of the best in the History. Enjoy Folks­ :)

    From Mr. CooL, on Sat 4 Jul 6:07PM

  19. Hi andy all the best hope you win godbless stay cool­ have fun on the final

    From jhecks, on Sat 4 Jul 6:01PM

  20. 328 how can you say rafa is a looser@out RAFA DID NOT­ PLAY DO YOU KNOW THAT?if you are a sporty person @you­ have an injury are you going to play?NO NO NO­ right@somebody call you a looser bec you did not play­ how do you fell?you have no BRAIN AT ALL TO CALL RAFA A­ LOOSER,,,,,,,328

    From jhecks, on Sat 4 Jul 5:58PM
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