RidRed wrote:

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Sally, Haven't gone quite yet. If you're timetables (in Britain?) are saying 11 p.m. Mine (in Spain) are showing 12 p.m., so that seems to coincide. Shame I don't get Eurosport 2!

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Ok. The OOP should (according to saturday`s OOP) come out around 9am GMT.

Well, I have now read right through the thread. Thanks to all those who contributed, it is much better than just reading a report, you really get a feel for the game.  I have checked the tournament fact sheet and play is at 3pm, 11pm here, so I definitely will not miss this one!

I still can't take it in.  And do you know, I really think he has a chance against Hewitt if he keeps his nerve and serves well.

-- Edited by Madeline at 06:04, 2006-02-19

Well Murray made the front page of the BBC Sport Website with this win (and so he should have)!

Murray stuns Roddick in San Jose   

Britain's Andy Murray pulled off the biggest win of his young career as he stunned top seed Andy Roddick in the SAP Open semi-finals in San Jose.

The 18-year-old Scot reached his second ATP tour final with a 7-5 7-5 victory over the former US Open champion.

Roddick, 23, was looking for a hat-trick of victories in the event.

But Murray broke him in the 11th game of both sets to book a final date with Lleyton Hewitt, who beat American Vincent Spadea 6-3 6-4 in his semi.

"I was almost a little sick because of nerves but in the end I came though," Murray, the world number 60, said after his first win over a player ranked in the top 10.

"Beating Roddick in his home country is like a dream come true."

Roddick had looked the more comfortable on his serve in the opening set until Murray showed impeccable timing to break him at 5-5 and serve out the set.

The Dunblane teenager looked on course for victory when breaking the American again in game five of the second set, only for Roddick to break back immediately.

But Murray struck again at 5-5 and then held his nerve in a thrilling final game to wrap up a famous win.

"It just seemed like I couldn't get the ball to go through the court how I would have liked," said Roddick.

"It was difficult. I wasn't getting much bite on my service action. It was frustrating."

Sunday will bring Murray his second tour final after losing to Roger Federer in the final of the Thailand Open last October, while it will be Hewitt's first final for nearly a year.

"I felt like I played pretty solid," said Hewitt, who dominated Spadea with his aggressive groundstrokes from the baseline, hitting 25 winners in all.

"I put pressure on nearly all of his service games. I was trying to dictate as much as possible and get him on the defensive."

The former world number one has not won a title since a tournament in Sydney 13 months ago.

-- Edited by mkkreuk at 08:19, 2006-02-19

From the ATP website:

Murray: “I think the main things in the match were that I served and returned well, and my stats on my serve when I was down in the game were great. I served very well and had a few chances, actually I had a lot of chances I thought on his serve, especially in the first set.

“I made a few too many mistakes at the beginning of the match and maybe a few too many at the end when I was ahead — I was maybe going for a little too much. I don’t know if it was nerves or if I just lost concentration, but overall I played very well.

“I played well all week and I’m looking forward to playing in the final against Hewitt. I made one final before and it was against Federer, and now I get a chance to play against Hewitt, so it’s going to be a good match.

“In matches like that the crowd doesn’t matter, it’s just great to be on the court with someone like him. To manage to win against him is amazing, and I’m really looking forward to playing my match tomorrow because now that I’ve won against a Top 10 player, it gives me the confidence knowing I can do it because I’ve had chances against Top 10 players before and I haven’t taken them.”

 

 Great news to wake up to, congratulations to those who managed to stay up for the excitement, oh to be young enough to hang in for those late night sessions.

If Andy keeps this up I may have to think seriously about getting a sky dish for the few dregs of tennis that they serve up, just now though I cannot bring myself to give my hard earned cash to some already over-paid footballer.

 

Still... bring on Hewit, the boy has a great chance here to go one step further.

Will be around to-nite  you bet

Cheers

Geo.

Report from a Murray fan who was courtside:

"Murray's game is definitely fun to watch. He was taking a lot of Roddick's power and just hitting soft, low balls back. He really knows how to work the angles, too.

He looked to be playing a bit better against Roddick tonight than he was against previous opponents. He seemed to be "in the zone" tonight. His unforced errors count was low.

Roddick was moving Murray around the court a lot but Murray handled it well. He was able to come up with good shots on the run and hit a few real nice passing shots.

I think Murray exposed some of the flaws in Roddick's game tonight. Particularly that Roddick comes to net far too little and seems to not have much strategy ready when someone returns one of his 135+mph bombs right back to him like Murray was."

Match stats: Murray outhit Roddick !!!!

Murray hit 26 winners compared to Roddick's 15. I am told this is down to several reasons:

[1] Murray's returning was brilliant, he was returning 130 mph+ bullets from Roddick and returning them deep. Roddick is one of the best exponents today of the serve-forehand combination - looking to hit a winner off the 2nd or 3rd shot. Murray's returning was so good he wasn't able to do that very often and so was drawn into ong rallies where Murray is strongest and he could expose Roddick's weak backhand. Roddick didn't particularly know what to do as his main weapons had been blunted and frankly Murray's brilliance left him looking a little toothless at times.

[2] Murray's atheleticism, agility and speed around the court caused Roddick big problems. Roddick was moving him round the baseline a lot but Murray is a master of absorbing the pace on powerful groundstrokes and defending with looping topspin and slice shots. Roddick was having to generate all the pace off the ground and this is physically and mentally exhausting. Murray was so fast and so agile around the court that Roddick had huge problems in breaking down his defence. When he did manage to get Murray on the run he usually came up with some Federesque blazing winners and passing shots.

[3] Roddick's net problems: Roddick has been trying to come to the net more in matches but he's not particularly good at integrating it into a match strategy. He either comes into the net too much in a match so it becomes predictable and then gets stuck in a groove with it and keeps attacking the net no matter how many times he's getting passed. Or, he doesn't come into the net enough and when he does come in he picks the wrong ball to do so and doesn't hit a good enough passing shot. The latter was certainly true against Murray, when Roddick did try to come in, Murray picked him off.

[4] Murray was on fire tonight: After struggling a bit in his previous two matches, Andy played his best ever match. His serve, forehand, backhand and returning etc were all top-notch and had the quality of a top 5 player. Sure, he got a little nervous in set 2 but who wouldn't in a match of this magnitude. If he can perform like this on a regular basis he will become a grand slam contender very soon. He was able to produce the aggressive tennis he was working on in the off-season and the tennis which he'd been trying to produce in Australia. So when he got the chance he was able to take the fight to Roddick - some of the big serves and forehands he produced gave Roddick a sample of his own medicine and the American didn't like the taste.