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WIMBLEDON, England There will be an Andy in the Wimbledon final.
American Andy Roddick survived a grueling five-set quarterfinal against Lleyton Hewitt, 6-3, 6-7 (12-10), 7-6 (7-1), 4-6, 6-4 and must now face Andy Murray – and the hometown crowd – in the semifinals.
Murray, a Scot who's ranked third, is trying to become the first British man to win Wimbledon since Fred Perry in 1936. He beat wild card and former No.1 Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 to advance to his first Wimbledon semifinal.
Roddick, relieved to get through the 3-hour, 50-minute match, wiped tears from his eyes as he packed his racket bag.
“I hadn't been in the Grand Slam picture much the past two years, and now I'm in my second semifinal of the year, so I'm thrilled,” he said. “We knew it would be a fight going in, it's a testament to the type of player Lleyton is. We used to go at it earlier in our careers, but we have earned respect for each other. Now, we're just a couple of old married dudes.”
Asked if he was tired, he said: “No time to be tired. I'm ready to go.”
The match included wild swings of momentum, artful shot-making, ill-timed gaffes and a verbal sparring match between Roddick and chair umpire Carlos Ramos. And it was fraught with tension throughout, pitting Wimbledon's 2002 champion (Hewitt) against a two-time Wimbledon finalist (Roddick) – each a former world No.1, and each trying to reassert his relevance among the elite of tennis.
“It certainly wasn't short on drama,” Roddick said. “It was tough from a mental standpoint, because Lleyton wasn't going away, and there were kind of a lot of ebbs and flows.”
It pitted one of the game's best servers (Roddick) against one of its cagiest returners (Hewitt). And the result – despite Roddick's 43 aces – often was high quality rallies that showcased the players' respective skills.
Hewitt, 28, boasts the more varied game, and he wisely mixed up the tempo and pace to keep Roddick from settling into a groove.
Roddick essentially had one weapon, his booming serve, but time and again it extricated him from trouble of his own making – impetuous forays to the net and impatient groundstrokes.
Roddick was off to a commanding start after winning the opening set and taking a 5-2 lead in the second-set tiebreak. But Hewitt reeled off three successive points and hung tough, while Roddick flubbed three successive forehands to give the set away.
Roddick rebounded to win the third set with a masterful tiebreak and bolted to a 2-0 lead in the fourth set.
Again Hewitt refused to fold despite obvious discomfort in his left leg. A raucous contingent of Aussies cheered him on, easily drowning out Roddick's more modest rooting section. And even Brits without a rooting interest urged Hewitt on in his battle to pull even at two sets apiece. The longer the match went, the more exhausted it would leave the victor for Friday's semifinal against Murray.
With their help, Hewitt stormed back to force a fifth set.
And Roddick, who lost in the second round a year ago at Wimbledon and hadn't won a five-setter at any Grand Slam tournament in 21/2years, briefly lost his composure, squawking about a suspect line call and spraying groundstrokes both wide and long of the mark.
With the score knotted at four games each, Roddick finally broke Hewitt's serve with a forehand passing shot. And from there, he served out the match.
Looking forward to Friday's meeting with Murray, Roddick conceded he probably could count the number of fans he'd have walking onto Centre Court on one hand. But he vowed to revel in the electricity regardless, having waited since 2005 to reach Wimbledon's semifinals again.
“I'm just gonna pretend when they say, `C'mon Andy!' that they mean me,” Roddick said with a smile. THE WASHINGTON POST AND ASSOCIATED PRESS CONTRIBUTED.
