Federer, Roddick Mow the Field at Wimbledon

Posted on June 28, 2004

Top-seeded Roger Federer and No. 2 Andy Roddick showed why they are the preeminent picks to meet in the Wimbledon final, on "People's Sunday" failing to drop a set in the face of stiff competition.

Federer prevailed 6-3, 6-4, 6-3 over grasscourt veteran and former Aussie Open winner Thomas Johansson, while Roddick fended off the big serving of countryman and No. 26 seed Taylor Dent 6-3, 7-6(6), 7-6(1).

"Roger Federer progressing through matches and playing well isn't exactly a surprise," Roddick said. "I'm playing my tournament. You know, if that includes him somewhere down the line, then I'll worry about it. But I'm not too concerned, and I'm sure he would say the same thing. You're always curious. But, you know, I'm trying to win my matches."

Federer says he is likewise keeping an eye on Roddick.

"I always keep watching a little bit of (Roddick's) matches because, you know, he's No. 2 in the world," Federer said. "I have to kind of also look at his game, how well he's playing, because we haven't seen each other very much in the claycourt season because both either, you know, lost or played different times or whatever. But here I'm checking him out more than maybe other tournaments."

Upsets on the day were provided by American (30)Vince Spadea (d. (8)Schuettler), and un-seeds Swede Joachim Johansson (d. countryman (17)Bjorkman in four), and Croatians "Dr." Ivo Karlovic (d. (18)Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez in four) and Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic (d. (25)Hrbaty).

(5)Tim Henman electrified the People's Sunday Brit crowd with a four-set win over Hicham Arazi, with other seeded winners (11)Mark Philippoussis (d. (24)Gonzalez in four) and (12)Sjeng Schalken (d. Enqvist 6-2 in the fifth).

Three players advanced into the fourth round in all-unseeded matches in Germany's Florian Mayer (d. W.Ferreira in four), Belgium's Xavier "X-Man" Malisse (d. Beck), and another German in Alexander "My Serve Has" Popp (d. Carlsen).

There were three upsets in the men's doubles with Davydenko/Fisher d. (9)Etlis/Rodriguez, Parrott/Spadea d. (11)Paes/Rikl, and Bachelot/Pavel d. (15)Hood/Prieto.

Monday on the men's side is (7)Hewitt vs. (9)Moya (Spaniard leads career encounters 5-4, and the two have never faced-off on grass), (5)Henman vs. (11)Philippousis (Flipper leads 4-2, including their only meeting on grass), (1)Federer vs. Karlovic (first meeting between Club Fed and Dr. Ivo), (2)Roddick vs. Popp (first meeting), (10)Grosjean vs. (20)Ginepri (Frenchman leads 2-0), (12)Schalken vs. (30)Spadea (tied 3-3), X-man vs. Baby Goran (first meeting), and Mayer vs. J.Johansson (on Court 18, ouch, first meeting).

Spreminator Continues Tearing Through Americans at Wimbledon

Croatian Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem capitalized on her upset of Venus Williams by Sunday taking out another American seed in the form of No. 32 Meghann Shaughnessy, 7-6(5), 7-6(2).

"She was serving well and I was having problem with this," Sprem said. "And I didn't know what to do. But I was just focused in my match and I was focused on the next point, I think. So that was the key."

All other matches went according to seed with winners (1)Serena (d. Magui "Don't Call Me Maggie" Serna), (4)Amelie Mauresmo (d. Cervanova), (7)Jennifer Capriati (d. (25)Dechy), (9)Paola Suarez (d. Anne "Cosmo" Kremer 6-0 in the third), (10)Nadia Petrova (d. Perebiynis), (21)Maggie Maleeva (d. Denisa "Hanging" Chladkova), and in the only all-unseeded, Rita "Ain't It" Grande edged Virginia Razzano in three.

On today for the women are (5)Davenport vs. (12)Zvonareva (Davenport leads the career head-to-head 3-0), (13)Maria "Grunt-o-meter" Sharapova vs. (31)Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier (Russian leads 1-0), Golovin vs. Gagliardi (to finish), (14)Farina Elia vs. Ruano Pascual (to finish), (11)Sugiyama vs. Tanasugarn (Sugiyama leads 3-2), and on Court 18, (21)Maleeva vs. Sprem (Spreminator leads 1-0).

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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES, AND BARBS
Roger Federer continues to look like...well...Roger Federer. The Swiss wiz has won 20 straight matches on clay and 32 sets. And zero is the number of times he's been broken this week...Vince Spadea has reached his first Wimbledon second week, and like Federer, Hewitt, Popp, Roddick and probably someone else we left out, has yet to drop a set...One is the number of times Jennifer Capriati has lost in the third round of a Grand Slam...Joachim Johansson leads all players with 101 aces...Not surprisingly, the Ivo Karlovic-Feliciano Lopez match had just one break. Karlovic serves a tournament-best 40 aces...Mark Philippoussis has advanced to six straight Wimbledon second weeks, but Tim Henman is better with nine consecutive. They meet Monday. Look for Tim to win in four...Forecast: Hit and miss showers Monday with a storm approaching later in the week...Wayne Ferreira is the only player alive to lose on all three "People's Sundays". Check it...Speaking of Lauren Bedford, the alleged new squeeze of Andy Roddick, where is she?...Rain interupted play late Sunday for a ninth time this fortnight...28,000 people queued for tickets Sunday, problem was there was only one ticket gate open. Just imaging 28,000 people in line at the airport and just one security checkpoint. How long would that take? Now you get the drift why the seats were empty early in the day. Actually, 10,000 tickets were apparently left unsold..Along with Wayne Ferreira, Todd Woodbridge is the only other player to compete in all three "People's Sunday"...Over/Under on the next "People's Sunday" is 2008. Well take the under...Says CEO Chris Gorringe, Wimbledon is played in a resedential neighborhood hence the desire to have at least one Sunday off. BRILLIANT!!...Serena Williams has won 17 straight at Wimbledon....Tim Henman thinks Wimbledon should always have a People's Sunday: "These people are obviously passionate about the game. It's something that I think could be capitalized on. I can see it's difficult to organize, but from a player's point of view, it's a privilege."...Jean-Francois Remesy won the French Open by seven shots on Sunday, becoming the first Frenchman to win his national open for 35 years -- in golf. Just keeping you on your toes...Writers at London's The Times were worried with Tim Henman's sketchy play against Hicham Arazi: "He insists that he can raise his game to the necessary heights, but yesterday he was infuriatingly inconsistent, mixing sublime touches of magic with strange streaks of errors. While he was brave with the depth and quality of his second serves, he was bemusing with the paucity of his service return. He also persisted with a chopped, block-and-charge return of the Arazi second serve that found the net with worrying consistency."...Best headline for People's Sunday goes to The Times: "BBC cleans up as Wimbledon welcomes the great unwashed"...From Britain's The Independent: "The late-morning crowd on Centre Court appeared to be on a day out from Hogwarts School, so often were they on the edge of joyful unruliness. The cat-calls and encouragements were a bit more raucous than usual and, during one change-over, a champagne cork arced over the railings and plopped by the foot of a startled ball girl. They were waiting for Tim Henman, their own Harry Potter, of course. But there is only one wizard, only one magician. And his name is Roger Federer."...Wow, just discovered this on the ESPN site from a couple days ago, Greg Garber's "Splendor in the Grass" Wimbledon reporting: "The Internet site tennis-x.com, in its anonymously penned "News, Notes, Quotes and Barbs," has called (again) for more flavor from the intrepid reporter: 'Start a 'Ugly American-London column, grab a Stella, wander about and entertain us, write it up.' Dude, as Andy Roddick would say, it's an before Ugly, not a. But, hey, thanks for the love. This Stella's for you." Even more impressive was Garber's coverage of the Nando's chicken place, that is some insanely-good fowl. Keep up the Stella coverage. But change that picture/sketch of yourself that look's like you were just told your dog was run over...Taylor Dent needs to improve that volley that looks like he's aiming for the net tape every time...Vince Spadea, into the fourth round at Wimbledon, had never been past the second round in eight previous attempts: "It feels great to put all those haunted feelings in the wastebasket. I'm sort of in uncharted waters here."...Serena said in her post-match conference that in 20 years' time, at age 32, she hoped to be running a successful clothing company. Nice math, who says you need college?...Does 31-year-old American Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier thinks she's old? "No," she said, laughing. "Most of the time, I can't believe I'm an adult."...Greg Rusedski brought the hammer down about not getting support during his drug case from certain individuals: "Some people -- including players -- said I made a mistake in going public about my test, but I had no choice. It was starting to leak out. Two of those players who criticized me were Todd Martin and Todd Woodbridge. They didn't even read the facts about the situation or the press statement. These are two guys on the player council and they did not even have the decency to read my press statement. They did not understand what was going on. You would wish they were smart enough to read what was going on before saying things about it."