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Roddick Rocked by Unseeded Murray at ATP San Jose
Posted on February 19, 2006
Unseeded Brit-Scot Andy Murray sent namesake Andy Roddick spinning deeper into his 2006 downward spiral Saturday at the ATP stop in San Jose, defeating the American 7-5, 7-5 in their first tour encounter to gain the Sunday final against Lleyton Hewitt.
For the 18-year-old it is his second ATP final after losing to Roger Federer last October at Bangkok.
Murray broke Roddick's service in the 11th game of both sets, overcoming jitters in facing the former No. 1 and US Open champion.
"I was almost a little sick because of nerves but in the end I came though," said Murray who has yet to crack the Top 50 on the ATP Rankings. "Beating Roddick in his home country is like a dream come true."
Roddick came unraveled during the encounter, yelling at the chair umpire for "making stupid faces at me," and at one point telling him "You're the most arrogant umpire out here," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
FOLDHERE
"It just seemed like I couldn't get the ball to go through the court like I would have liked," Roddick said. "It was difficult. I wasn't getting much bite on my service action. It was frustrating."
Murray also plainly took a lesson from players such as Roger Federer and Marcos Baghdatis who simply blocked Roddick's serve back in past wins over the American.
"He returned well," Roddick said. "I hit a bomb at my spot and he'd block it back and I'd be back to neutral again."
Murray's nerves were on display when he doubled faulted on his first match point at 6-5 and fought off a break point before closing out the match with 25 total winners to Roddick's 14.
"I was a little nervous, but I have a little more experience against the best players now," Murray said. "I know when they start to come back on me that the worst way to play is defensively. Today I played more aggressively and it paid off."
Murray will now face Lleyton Hewitt, who improved his career record over Vince Spadea to 5-0 with a 6-3, 6-4 win, and finds himself in his first final in nearly a year.
Spadea, who sees a sports psychologist to aid in cracking the barrier between himself and the upper echelon on the ATP tour, tipped his hand before the match when he said facing Hewitt was a "big nightmare."
"You need a weapon to beat him or you have to out-tough him," said Spadea, who had no answers for the Aussie's consistency and was 0-3 on break point opportunities. "That's his game, being tough."
It will be the first meeting between Hewitt and Murray, who both rely on their fiery competitiveness rather than big weapons to win matches.
"I was around him in Wimbledon last year," said Hewitt of Murray. "He's a good ball striker, and he has a strong head on him as well. I think he plays the game smart from the back of the court. He moves exceptionally well around the court for a big guy, and he's dangerous. He varies the pace very well."
The doubles final in San Jose will be the unseeded American team of Goldstein/Thomas, who ousted top seeds Aspelin/Perry in a match tiebreak, against wildcards Bjorkman/J.McEnroe who edged No. 4 seeds Levinsky/Lindstedt in another third-set match tiebreak.
"There's one more to go and it's two Stanford boys, so I hope they got the script," said McEnroe of the final, which will be broadcast at 8 p.m. Sunday on The Tennis Channel in the U.S. "Right now it's just one more so I hope we go all the way. Since were older and slightly better looking, I hope that will come in handy."
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