Roddick Holds His Nerve In Hewitt Epic

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For all the talk of Murraymania, 1936 and all that, at The Championships this year it is easy to forget the United States has not had a male Grand Slam champion for six years. It might not be the 73 years the British public has endured, but for Americans the title-drought has gone on long enough. Andy Roddick lifted his lone Grand Slam championship trophy at the US Open in 2003.

Roddick flashed into life against Lleyton Hewitt, the 2002 champion, firing 78 winners – including 43 aces – past the Australian for a 6-3, 6-7(10), 7-6(1), 4-6, 6-4 victory on Court One in three hours and 50 minutes. It was Roddick’s fifth straight win in the battle of the former World No. 1s and Grand Slam champions. Three weeks ago Roddick won the pair’s AEGON Championships meeting in two tie-break sets.

"It's a mixture of happiness, of relief," admitted Roddick, on his emotional end to the match. "In your mind you're kind of trying to stay the course for four hours, constantly figuring out what you're going to do. Your mind is just racing for four hours. Then it's relief, happiness, and almost kind of an instant shut down mode."

The 28-year-old Texas resident will now appear in his first Wimbledon semi-final since 2005, when he reached his second successive final, against third-seeded Scot Andy Murray on Friday. "Andy has been playing great," said Roddick, ahead of the pair's ninth meeting. "He's certainly kind of come into his own as a player. With my serve, I can give myself a chance in any match. I've been in this situation many times. I'm not gonna predict anything. I'm going to have to play well."

Roddick served well to take the 27-minute first set, capitalising on two double faults from Hewitt in the Australian’s first service game.  But some gutsy counter-punching from Hewitt, in a dramatic 22-point second-set tie-break, levelled the scoreline. Roddick had led 5-2 and had three set-points, but could not convert any of them. Hewitt also squandered two set points, before finally levelling the match when Roddick fired a forehand long.

A left leg injury to Hewitt let Roddick run through the third-set tie-break and it got worse for the World No. 56 when he has his serve broken at the start of the fourth set. But Hewitt’s Fanatics, a large group of Australian fans, cheered their player back to life to take the pair’s 12 meeting into a fifth and deciding set.

Roddick clinched the decisive service break in the ninth game and went on to held serve for victory when Hewitt hit a forehand volley long. "I played a lot better in the fifth [set] than I did probably from the second [set] on," said Roddick. "I returned a lot better. I kind of just went for my shots a little bit more. He hit one kind of bad forehand that let me get a look."

Hewitt, who missed six months last year with a hip injury, committed 42 unforced errors and served nine double faults in his first Grand Slam championship quarter-final since the 2006 US Open.

“It was a matter of trying to hang in there as much as possible and make him play that extra shot,” said Hewitt. “I was nearly able to do it. Coming into this particular tournament I felt pretty good physically, and I knew mentally I'd be able to hang around for five sets against the best guys. It has added belief now that I can go out there and [I] can do it more.”