the American view [from one of the newspapers over there]:

Teen surprises top seed Roddick
MURRAY TO FACE HEWITT FOR SAP OPEN CROWN

Andy Murray showed Saturday night at HP Pavilion that he is no ordinary teenager. The 18-year-old pulled off the biggest victory of his career, stunning top-seeded and two-time defending SAP Open champion Andy Roddick 7-5, 7-5 to advance to today's final.

Murray stayed composed for just about the entire 89-minute match, withstanding Roddick's 130-plus mph serves, the shifts in momentum and even a few outbursts from the world's third-ranked player.

It was only in the final game that Murray looked nervous. But after a double fault on his first opportunity to close out the match, the pride of Scotland didn't let a second chance go to waste.

Murray fired a 125 mph serve and then hit a volley that Roddick failed to put in play, clinching his first victory over a top-10 opponent in four tries and putting him in the final against Lleyton Hewitt, a 6-3, 6-4 winner over Vince Spadea.

``I have so much respect for somebody like Andy Roddick,'' Murray said. ``He's won a Grand Slam. He's been No. 1 in the world. He's achieved so much. It's just great for me to be on the same court as somebody like him. To actually win against him is amazing.''

A little more than a year ago, Murray had never played an ATP match and was ranked 514th in the world. He began this tournament ranked 60th and will certainly move up when the new rankings come out Monday.

In the first set Saturday, Murray fought to hold serve and had trouble keeping up with Roddick's power game. But he got his first chance to break with Roddick serving at 5-5 and pounced on it. Murray won the next game at love to take the set.

When he hit a backhand from the baseline between Roddick's legs on break point five games into the second set, Murray had a 3-2 lead. Roddick answered with a break at love in the next game and then held serve a game later. But he couldn't sustain it.

``There was definitely momentum,'' Roddick said. ``To his credit, he stayed tough.''

Murray took the lead for good, 6-5, when Roddick sailed a forehand wide while serving at 30-40. The teen got to break point with a remarkable cross-court backhand a point earlier.

``That was pretty impressive,'' Roddick said. ``I hit the ball about as well as I wanted to, and he hit that shot pretty well.''

Hewitt simply was too much for Spadea, needing only 72 minutes to reach a final for the first time since March. The Australian dictated play from the outset and would have had an even easier time had he not missed a couple of big forehands in the first set.

``He always plays in the margin of good to average to great,'' said Spadea, who is winless in five matches against Hewitt, including two this year. ``He never plays really poorly. I haven't seen him play badly in a while.''

Hewitt, ranked 11th, kept Spadea on the move, attacking his backhand and trying to keep the 31-year-old American from gaining any edge.

Spadea slammed his racket in frustration a couple of times. Once, the racket fought back, hitting the 79th-ranked player in the face on the rebound.

``I need more than a backhand to win a match out there, but it would have been nice if I could have made a couple of more shots,'' Spadea said.

Hewitt hit 25 winners, to Spadea's 16, and saved the only three break points he faced, all in the second set.

``I felt like I played pretty solid out there,'' said Hewitt, who beat Andre Agassi in the San Jose tournament final in 2002. ``I felt like I was on top of him right from the start and putting pressure on all of his service games.''

It was Hewitt's 11th win in 12 matches in San Jose, including nine in a row. He will be seeking his first title in 13 months and 25th overall.

Murray, the youngest player to reach a final in this tournament since Michael Chang (16) won it in 1988, will be in his second final. He lost to No. 1 Roger Federer in Bangkok in

Just read through the last 5 or 6 pages of the match on MTF...what a laugh....and uncensored language ! A couple of Scots almost giving birth whilst 2 or 3 Yanks finding even more negative emoticons to show their disbelief. Also a canadian, argentinian and a swiss bloke all heaping mege paise on young Murray....good laugh !!!