Roddick Loses, Ripped by ESPN Crew at Wimbledon; Tennis-X Notes
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Andy Roddick was 7-0 career versus Spain’s Feliciano Lopez on Friday at Wimbledon, but “F-Lo” served-up a stellar performance in shocking the three-time Wimbledon runner-up 7-6(2), 7-6(2), 6-4 at the All England Club.
ADHEREL
Is Roddick continuing to improve in his overall game?
“Not this year, No,” Roddick said in his post-match conference. “I haven’t played well this year, for sure. I don’t think I’ve played my best since probably April of last year. I think I can. Have I over the last year? Probably not. I’ve been up against some stuff. But it has to get better. There’s no doubt.”
“Some stuff” have been various injuries in 2010-011, but nonetheless ESPN commentator and former U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe and former Roddick coach Brad Gilbert absolutely ripped the American for playing passive tennis over the last few years and abandoning the grip-it-and-rip-it style that won his his lone Slam title at the US Open. ESPN commentator Pam Shriver chimed in that it could possibly be time for Roddick and coach Larry Stefanki to part ways.
In other third-round matches Friday, No. 4 seed Andy Murray overcame a stiff test from Croat Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(4), and No. 17 seed Richard Gasquet beat Italian Simone Bolelli in straights.
In second-round action No. 7 David Ferrer finished off unseeded American Ryan Harrison 6-2 in the fifth in a match resumed from the previous day, and also in resumed matches No. 11 Jurgen Melzer defeated Russian Dmitry Tursunov in four, and Aussie Bernard Tomic defeated Russian Igor Andreev 6-1 in the fifth.
“I was starting to get a little frustrated just because I’d already gone down a break after being up two sets to one,” Harrison said of losing his cool in the final stages of the match against Ferrer. “I could feel I wasn’t playing well. But I tried to take a deep breath and relax and just kind of keep my mouth shut and start fighting, and that was going to give me my best chance. Just because you try to do the right things and control your emotions doesn’t necessarily mean you’re going to win.”
Matches to watch for Saturday are (1) Rafael Nadal vs. Gilles Muller, (2) Novak Djokovic vs. (32) Marcos Baghdatis, (3) Roger Federer vs. (28) David Nalbandian, (5) Robin Soderling vs. Bernard Tomic, and (6) Tomas Berdych vs. Alex Bogomolov Jr.
TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Rafael Nadal has won 16 straight matches at Wimbledon, but at the end of his first set with Gilles Muller he called for the trainer to work on what looked like a left knee problem (match to finish Saturday)…Serena is pissed for playing on Court 2, but Pete Sampras also once played there (and lost)…Is Bernard Tomic better than Ryan Harrison? Tomic is a year younger and he just won his first career five-setter. Tomic will also be the highest-ranked Australian in the next ATP rankings…Roger Federer is trying for the career “Nalbandian Slam,” beating David Nalbandian at all four majors. The only player Federer has a career “player” slam over is Nicolas Kiefer. Federer and Nalbandian are both 29…The last two tournaments Bernard Tomic has played he’s lost to the eventual champion (Gilles Muller, Dudi Sela). Ditto for Xavier Malisse (Dmitry Tursunov, Andy Murray)…Fernando Gonzalez hasn’t beaten a Top 20 player in 18 months (Beijing 2009-David Ferrer)…Jurgen Melzer has a Wimbledon singles title, a junior one…Tamira Paszek was a Wimbledon junior finalist in 2005…The only time Serena Williams won consecutive three-set matches in the first two rounds of a Slam she lost to Jill Craybas at Wimbledon…Caroline Wozniacki will be No. 1 through the week of August 1…Francesca Schiavone is playing her 44th straight Slam…Petra Cetkovska has never won a game off of Ana Ivanovic…Shaui Peng is the highest-ranked player without a WTA singles title…Good thing they have a roof. Andy Murray is 3-0 under it…How long until Andy Roddick coach Larry Stefanki gets canned? Maybe never since Roddick seems content to play like Michael Chang rather than the grip-it-and-rip-it style that won him a US Open…German Julia “Gorgeous” Goerges says stop calling her gorgeous: “Honestly, I don’t really like it. It’s just that people sometimes read my name and can’t pronounce it because they haven’t heard it before, especially in America. You can make the joke once but you don’t have to do it two or three or four times in a row. It’s getting to really annoy me. I’m not the type of girl who tries to make herself more glamorous. I want to show what I can do in tennis and it has nothing to do with how you look on court. If you’re good-looking on court, it doesn’t win any matches.”…Andy Murray is the only British man or women remaining in the draw after five days at Wimbledon…World No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki, like Serena Williams the previous day, got the Court 2 treatment from Wimbledon schedulers and complained: “I think I deserve to play on one of the bigger courts. Obviously, everyone wants to play in there. It’s up to the tournament to decide where we’re going to play. I just go out there and I try to win.”…What happened to Andy Murray’s “torn tendon” he “played through” at the French? That was superhuman healing! Was it a partial tear Andy or a complete tear?…After being fined $5,000 for an audible obscenity at Wimbledon, Spaniard Fernando Verdasco tweeted “ITF (equals) Thieves (equals) shameful” then deleted it…The WTA says its sponsorships have increased 60 percent in the last 12 months.
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