Two words for me: GO MURRAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm with you, GTF. I can't believe a player like Wawrinka has won just one title in his entire career. Well, he's playing better than ever, so hopefully he'll start racking them up. I just can't believe how heavy Stan's groundstrokes are. He must put those glutes into every shot In the end, I'm happy that Andy M made it through because hopefully between Novak and Andy, the pissiest bitch on the ATP tour will be prevented from winning #15. But back to the match, I'm so impressed with how well Andy is handling the pressure. Obviously Wimbledon is important to him, but it's not like he takes the weight of the world (or at least the entire British Empire) on his shoulders like Henman did.

I am heartbroken by yet another Karlovic (on paper) upset. As much as every Federer loss makes me downright giddy, I'd actually rather see him avoid an upset against the Big Bomber to set up (hopefully) a semi against Novak and perhaps the final against Andy M. Of course, I'd rather see an Andy-Novak final, but gotta agree, Andy M vs. Roger could be epic.

Congrats to Lleyton. I only saw clips, but wow, the guy looks awfully close to the kind of tennis he was playing back in his #1 days. It sets up an interesting QF against another guy who hasn't won a Slam in a loooooong time. Lleyton has played Andy R awfully close the last couple of times they played, but I got a feeling Andy's coming through here. The QFs are chock-full of vets playing terrific tennis, but I think it's the end of the road for Juan Carlos and Tommy, even though Tommy just beat Novak in the Halle final. Novak's playing a lot better now, and Tommy's mental strength is still a bit suspect in Slams.

I pegged Wawrinka as a player who might crack the top 10 back when we were doing our predictions for 2008--which he did, but didn't stick. It's good to see him playing well again. He reminds me a little of Mikhail Youzhny (they both have great legs and great one-handed backhands), but his serve is better and he doesn't self-mutilate.

On Lleyton--I saw some of the Del Potro match and while he's playing better than he has in a while, I'm not convinced he's quite where he was in 2002. I think people have forgotten how nasty his return of serve was then. Hewitt probably did more to kill serve & volley tennis than anybody else (well, maybe Bolletierri). If he's really back though, Andy's in trouble because in his salad days, he owned Roddick.

So the Quarters are upon us now and of the eight guys there, five of them have won majors in their careers: Hewitt, Roddick, Ferrero, Djokovic and Federer. Although the former three haven't seen a triumph like that in at least 4 years. Still, the cream does rise more often than not at the business end of a Major.

I know Murray's gotten a lotta hype coming into this, especially with Nadal withdrawing. But the Wawrinka match showed me again that he's at his best on hard courts where he can trust the bounce much more often to start hurling his junk balls. Grass and clay force him to improvise, and I thought he actually played a little further back against Stan than he does on hard courts. Against the better guys on clay and grass he's still vulnerable. Stan should have sent him home, and last year Murray had a tough five setter against Gasquet before Nadal blew him off the court. Just tough for me to see him winning the whole thing.

Nominees for Best Career Resurrection: Hewitt, Ferrero and Haas!! Dunno what's gotten into these guys (well, in Hewitt's case a new hip's what's gotten into him ) but they're playing some of the best ball they have in many moons. Huge congrats to all of them. Even more remarkable is Karlovic. You'd have figured with a serve like his he'd be a natural to go deep at Wimbledon. But until this year, he lost in the First Round in each of the four previous years here. Brad Gilbert did make an observation about him that probably explains the difference: Karlovic is going for much more on his second serves than he ever has, and that's what's been paying off for him.

Federer (The Greatest Player Who Ever Lived) has been playing like he always does here. And I agree with Tennis Guy in that his "Gosh don't you wish you were me? I'm me and I can't get enough of me" commercials for Net Jets and the US Open Series Promo are nauseating to watch. Especially the trophy pulling. I mean, couldn't he wait until he at least broke the Sampras record before basking in and commercializing his own Federerness? He's on TV almost as much as Obama . So far he just shares a record, and is one of a few who've won all four Majors. But he's behaving like he's the only one who's done any of these things. .

The one who's been playing the best tennis the most often is Djokovic. And I think he's benefitting from being under the radar regarding press coverage. He's the one that has the game to win here more than Murray. I like that he's beaten Federer (The Greatest Player Who Ever Lived) in their last two meetings should they reach their almost inevitable collision in the Semis. I'll pick him to get by that one, and if he does he'll win the whole shootin' match.

So with all the bitching about Fed's commercials- where is the bitching about other athletes and their commercials.

Fed doesn't write the commercials- they send him a pretty check and he performs as requested.

Other athletes have done commercials more grandiose even before accomplishing anything....

I dunno- they can be perceived as pretentious but I say- take home the check...

Uh..here's a newsflash: Federer doesn't have to do the commercials. It's his choice. That he chooses to do it (and if you think it's for money to a guy like him then I have a bridge for sale I wanna show you). It's about his integrity, not his pocketbook.

oh for god's sake. is there any part of federer's life you can't find fault with?

besides, those commercials are a hell of a lot better than those "oh, he had time to make a balloon animal and mack on that girl" Novak commercials for ...well, whatever those commercials were supposed to be for.

Commercials generally suck, just in different ways. Ask Dulce!

Except the Youzhny Chupa Chups ad with figure skater Plushenko. That's some terrible camp heaven.

My boyfriend likes the Federer Rolex ad.

The one I find grating is Net Jets not because of Federer but because the company might as well be called Ozone Killer and yeah, it is all about elitism. All these guys cultivate an image and there's nothing surprising about Federer's being rooted in superiority. (Michael Jackson may have passed away from shock from looking in his closet and discovering his favorite white quasi-military outfits with gold trim went missing.)

I haven't seen enough of the men's matches this year, but Federer is looking fierce in those of his I have caught. Murray really backslid literally and figuratively against Wawrinka.

Murray would seem to have the best chance of breaking Federer's authority, because Murray's return game is superb enough to rattle Federer from time to time, which is all it takes on grass..

...yet unlike Nadal, Murray doesn't hold serve with near-absolute reliability on grass, so he's likely to lose whatever he might gain.

I'd have to see Djokovic play more to rate his chances. Based on his early matches I don't, but the last two scores indicate he's picked things up.

Climbing Mt. Karlovic kinda gave Nadal the momentum to win Queen's and Wimbledon last year. I'd expect the same with Federer if he does it. Not sure that he even needs any more momentum, though.

Didn't you read where I parenthetically called him The Greatest Player Who Ever Lived? You mean..that's not enough for you? Snicks, honey...not everything the guy does is worthy of your endless slobbering over him

Besides, the Djokovic commercials aren't "about" him. It's a schtick premise featuring him. Federer's (The Greatest Player Who Ever Lived) commercials are all about Federer (The Greatest Player Who Ever Lived) himself. Probably paid for, and written by, him . It's tough for me to imagine someone like Sampras or Laver appearing in such a commercial, essentially never missing a chance to let us know how great they thought they were. Federer's (The Greatest Player Who Ever Lived) the exact opposite - he's unflinchingly eager to talk about his view of himself in front of any camera or any microphone at any time. Great Player for sure. And a huge Attention Whore.

Good for Tommy Haas. I hope he can keep this up. I like the goat that it appears Djokovic is starting to grow. WOOF! Suits him very well I think.

Voicemale, do you not like Federer or something? Because if this re case, his historic run over the past several years must be rally grating!! And another win today; another semifinal. Ho hum.

Congrats to James and Mardy for getting to the doubles semis! Hopefully they an keep it going and pull off the huge upset and set the stage for an all-American final!

Fed wins in straight sets over Ivo, and Haas up 2 sets now on Djokovic....great way to start the morning.

Dear God<

Could you please destroy NBC?

Sincerely,
Irate Fan of LIVE Tennis

I mean WTF? There is LIVE tennis being played and they are showing us tape delayed coverage of an already completed match? I know, we go through this every year but I still needed to vent.

A beautiful man who plays a beautiful game into the semis! That's something to lighten to the day. Wish I had seen it. Oh well. Perhaps youtube will play some sniipets.

Hey at least you guys back east are getting SOME tennis. Out here on the west coast, we get NOTHING, until 10:00am, our time.

SPOILER ALERT




Haas took out Djokovic in 4 sets and next plays Federer in the semi. Roddick wins 1st set over Hewitt and Murray is up 2 sets on Juan Carlos.

NBC coverage sucks, they dont even acknowledge that its all taped.

I was referring to Tommy Haas. What a great surprise. Didn't want to spoil it...but now I see someone else posted the results.

Dear NBC,

The federer matchis boring. AND IT IS OVER.

The roddick match features two highly accomplished, charismatic players playing a tight match with different styles, plenty of breaks, and one is the top ranked AMERICAN. Please note that in 2009 there is a sum total of 5 true tennis fans who don't know the score of the Fed match.

You have brought shame onto your parent, General Electric.

Agreed! Roddick v. Hewitt SOUNDS like a very exciting match on the computer. Yeah, it would be nice to see it live. FOOLS!

I went back to bed when we switched over to NBC's coverage. I just about flipped when I got up after the damn Karlovic/Federer match was finally over, and they had switched to Djokovic/Haas. A more entertaining match, sure, but is it really so difficult for them to show a live match. What is wrong with these people?

Thank goodness for Radio Wimbledon. But boy do they hate Roddick, the commentators!

Well that was a fun match! Glad Andy pulled it out. I'm really looking forward to the Andy-Andy matchup on Friday.

WOW! Way to go Andy. Great GREAT recovery from losing the 2nd set tiebreak 12-10, then losing the 4th (with a break advantage) and wasting break points in the 5th, and facing several BPs in the final set.

Everyone's writing you off in the semi, but you're a better player than Wawrinka, and Stan almost made it past Murray, so you can too. And given all the pressure on Murray that he'll have 2 days to stew over, plus the fact that Roddick has been at this stage of Wimbledon before (and Murray hasn't) ... it's possible to overcome that 2-6 record against the Scot.

Not likely, but possible!

I agree with you 100% bridge. ALL the pressure, is on Murray and I am sure he knows this. I hope its competetive for Roddicks sake.

For a second I thought you were addressing Murray .

Not surprised that Haas beat Djokovic. If I could vote for a winner, he or Roddick would be the one. But we all know who the likely finalists are, and you gotta admit a Murray-Federer pairing is more likely to bring shotmaking and an electric atmosphere. Federer's history would be ho-hum to everyone but his fans if he didn't have a challenger.

Admittedly I kinda lost some interest in this year's Wimbledon going in (seems like others have too from this thread's 1/4-as-many-hits status). But NBC is almost killing it for me. Is it just me, or have they somehow messed things up even worse (longer) this year?

I remember them screwing up the men's semis forever, but didn't remember them completely screwing with the coverage as early as Wimbledon's second Monday (which is potentially the best tennis day of the year) which is what they've done in 2009.

Well, geez, I keep calling him The Greatest Player Who Ever Lived. Is that not good enough for you either? Should I stop calling him that? I mean, everyone else does it - the McEnroes, Cliff Drysdale, Darren Cahill, Snicks..you know..all the prominent voices of tennis. Do you ask if they don't like him too? How else should he be referenced regarding his career then, Jake? If labeling him The Greatest Player Who Ever Lived isn't appropriately respectful, do I need to genuflect to my computer before typing his name? Would that be more appropriate? OK..I admit I think he's an attention whore (and plenty of evidence abounds to bolster that) - but that's got nothing to do with how he hits a tennis ball, does it? I think I'm pretty good at separating the Roger player from Roger the Madonna-wannabe.

Are you Snick's twin, or his son from artificial insemination? Or some other genetic mutation connected to him?

Some people do sarcasm better than others.



Some people have an extremely skewed sense of themselves.


Nope! I'm not even that big of a Roger fan. But your obsessive hating on him is so ridiculous, it takes more than one person to call you out.

Looking forward to the "most beautiful" match I can recall. Haas v. Federer. Both men play classic, exquisite tennis.

Andy v. Andy. Not so much. Actually hardly at all. And I am realllly tired of Johnny Mac saying Roddick is there for the Americans or something to that effect. Screw nationalism.

I'm looking forward to both semis.

Yep! And that's exactly what happened. It was a pleasure to watch.

As usual, the West Coast is getting screwed. While Murray and Roddick are at it, we get last years match between Fed. and Nadal. I suppose at noon my time I will get the taped results of Roddick/Murray. Sucks with a capital S!

Who can explain to me why I don't see Andy vs. Andy on TV right now?

I live in San Diego?

TRL

It's not much better in the East ... the 4th hour of Today is currently on here.

I've got Radio Wimbledon on .... Roddick survived a love-40 on his first service game, and now just broke Murray to take a 3-1 lead in the 3rd.

mtn. zone has no tennis either. Radio Wimbledon online has been a blessing.

Those British broadcasters are so exuberrant...

USA! USA! USA!

You never know, this burst of patriotism might haunt you.

Great match by Roddick, obvious choking by Murray on some key points. Roddick is hitting that forehand with much of his old power, but with much better control. He lucked out by not having to face Nadal but he still beat the #3 player in the world.

Now onto Federer. Roddick desperately needs to hold serve 6 times in 3 different sets, and then see if his tiebreak mojo (bad word choice?) remains intact. Roger is going for history *in his house*. He doesn't lose at majors to Americans, and never in major finals to non-Rafas.

But Andy has given himself a chance. Good on him.

I love it when Andy Roddick feeds me crow.

I will gladly accept any abuse I have coming my way for constantly calling his backhand "an apology, not a ground stroke" these past few years. I will also accept all the "I-told-you-so's" people might want to point my way for always criticizing his complete inability to construct points, never having a plan B, camping out 2 miles behind the baseline, trying to brute-force-blast his way out of losing positions, etc...etc....

Roddick was firing backhand winners all day today, and an alarming number of them on the return of serve. He almost looked comfortable at net, and made some amazing net plays. He didn't even need a plan B today, he actually constructed many well-thought-out points. Clever slicing, some nice drop shots, entertaining cat'n'mouse points that he actually won....it was high quality stuff I don't remember seeing before. The steady improvement this year is undeniable, especially in slam results, but I certainly wasn't expecting this amazingly high level of play from Roddick.

Andy, while you're feeding me crow...I've also called you a one-slam-wonder MANY, MANY, times....

Taking your points in order:

*That you say it's sarcasm just shows you're impossible to please.

*You spend time accusing me of disingenuousness, and say I have "an extremely skewed sense" of myself? Oy the irony of your deep denial.

*That you're not even a fan of Federer yet still feel the need to engage me makes you even more bizarre than Snicks. At least he defends Federer out of an unbridled love for him. You're just carping for the sake of it. And lastly. I'm sure Snicks is a whole person. The jury's still out on you, Jake. So you're "more than one person" declaration falls a little short.

Federer's game is so clean, smooth, and precise that he is an absolute joy for me to watch.

Sometimes I feel a chill down my spine or I get "goosebumps" watching him play.

I think the one part of Federer's game that most people don't talk about, but is an even bigger weapon than his forehand is his serve. So far this year, his serve has gotten him so many free points and out of so much trouble.

It seems as if grass rewards his serve more than any other service.

If Federer can break Karlovic's serve, he definitely can hang with Roddick, even in a tiebreaker.

However, there are two parts of Roddick's game that he has improved so that he could prove to be a challenge for Federer: his backhand and his moving forward.

Tennis Guy, you took the words right out of my mouth. I've piled a whole Fresh Kills landfill of trash on Andy's game, for all the reasons you point out (BTW, you forgot "slablike movement"). Holy sh*t, the guy turns around and makes me eat a Guinness Book of World Records serving of crow. Well, good for him!!

After the match Andy didn't want to say that was the best match he had ever played, as if that breakthrough were just another day at the office. But Carillo and McEnroe were all too happy to say it for him. I've always been a huge fan of Andy as a person, just couldn't stand his game. It's so awesome to be able to be a fan of his tennis as well. It'll be a tough row to hoe on Sunday, but I'll be rooting for him like a madman.

Earlier in the season, Justin Gimelstob gushed that the four best players in the world were Nadal, Fed, Murray, and Roddick. I about blew a gasket because 1) he dissed my boy Novak, and 2) for all the reasons stated above, I wasn't real high on Andy's game, and Gimelstob's comment came off as shameless grandstanding for his homey. I'm happy to eat all the crow in the world to Andy, but oh gawd, it KILLS me to admit that Gimelstob was right.

I can't remember who it was, but when it was announced that Andy Roddick hired Larry Stefanki as a coach, some commentator (I wanna say Gimelstob, but that can't be right) dismissed Stefanki's coaching credentials, saying Stefanki was a great guy to pal around with and score you all the best tee times, but as a coach, not so much. Well, obviously whoever this commentator was couldn't be more wrong. Does this sound familiar to anyone? Can you name the commentator?

I was so torn yesterday. I've always liked Roddick and it would be great to have him get a second Slam. But the atmosphere tomorrow would be amazing with all the historical implications...Roger going for the record and Murray trying to be the first Brit to win since Larry King was in college. But Roddick looked so genuinely moved by his win yesterday that I felt so great for him. I, too, will be rooting like crazy for him tomorrow but I feel like Murray would have had the better chance to derail Federer. But I sure hope I am proven wrong!

I really think the key to the match tomorrow will be Andy's return game. He needs to be the first person in the tournament to put *some* pressure on Roger's serve. In my humble opinion, that will mean going after 2nd serves - and NOT GETTING FRUSTRATED or second guessing himself when he misses a few "easy" returns. It's going to happen. But if he doesn't take chances it will be tough for him.

I remember getting pretty much verbally bitchslapped when mentioning that Andy needed to get into the best physical shape of his career in order to step it up... a few of you claimed that it was not as essential and ridiculous ..

Well now that Andy has lost 15-20 #s and is in his best professional physical shape, he has had the best calendar year for Grand Slam performances- he has either matched or improved his level at each of them.
His movement is what has improved his game- and knowing that he has the physicality to get around his backhand when needed, to move forward and back.

What I didn't expect is his ability to put together points to improve, but I wonder if that is just better simply because he believes he can sit out there and put it together without tiring later in the match....

More amazing than the Roddick Backhand against Murray was his Forehand. He's hitting it a little flatter than he's done before, and it looks like his backswing off both sides is a little shorter than it was. His Backhand now has more racquet speed on the swing and it's made a huge difference. Roddick's Forehand grip up to now had been a total Semi-Western, so he got a lot of spin and margin off his forehand. Stefanki must have made him adjust the grip slightly upward on the racquet, cheating between a Semi Western & an Eastern because his Forehand was really driving through the court. Maybe it was me, but I also noticed Andy hitting the Reverse Forehand a lot more than I've ever seen him hit it. And Roddick took every opportunity to move into the court; he wasn't stuck several feet behind the base line like's he's been in the past against other Top 10 guys. It's the best he's looked in a few years, and all credit to him. He put in the work, and its' really paying off.

But said he's still up against it tomorrow. Federer has too many more weapons at his disposal. The numerous variations of his Forehand will be a lot for Andy to cope with, and the Federer slice will force Roddick to spend most of his match on the backhand side digging the ball out of the grass. Mentally Federer has a huge edge because of their H2H.

All that said, Andy does have a couple of things going for him. In their Major Finals of years past, Roddick has done well early in keeping with Federer, only to lose his concentration at crunch times. But Andy's a better player right now than he was even then. Fitter for sure, and with a few more strokes to select from. If he can vary his own serve enough to put Federer slightly off on the Return, instead of going for All Heat All The Time to get Federer into a return rhythm, he has a chance to keep this tight for a longer period. If Andy can gut out the first set in a tiebreak, Federer might start to feel a little more pressure just because he's going for #15 against a guy he owns. Roddick would do well to take a page from the Nadal book and just stay with Federer and make Federer feel the pressure of the occasion. And it is possible. We've seen Federer choke before. Not often, but he has. Andy needs to guard his own serve, which he should be capable of doing. I mean, if Nadal can get broken just once in 5 sets at Wimbledon against Federer then surely Roddick can manage the same. If Andy plays a smart match, he has the tools to push Federer to the brink, where Federer might start to feel it. Roddick has a chance to win this. Slight, for sure. But a chance. After all, not too many people gave him a chance against Murray, did they?

*raises hand* Guilty, right here!

Mmmmmmm......crow.........

Congratulations to Nester & Zimonjic for a terrific win in the dubs final. They eked out a very tight four-setter over the Bryans, and the quality of play was terrific. It was great that NBC showed the men's dubs final in its entirety with all the airtime they had left. It was better to see that than, say, yet another rebroadcast of last year's Rafa vs. Roger.

This match is high quality. Roddick is doing realllly well.

Ok, I realize it is easy to complain about NBC's coverage, particularly having to listen to McEnroe, but I have to say, he is being especially annoying this morning. Often he has reasonable things to say, but he's got such a stiffy on for Federer he seems incapable of seeing the match that is happening before his eyes. "Many people thought it might be easy [for Federer to win today]" - no, John, you've thought it might be easy, and won't shut up about it, but you're the only one. It is never easy to win Wimbledon, I don't care how good you are.