Roddick: I’ll be ready for Murray

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:39

The sixth seed needed nearly four hours to defeat Hewitt 6-3 6-7 (10/12) 7-6 (7/1) 4-6 6-4 in their quarter-final on Court One on Wednesday. Next up for Roddick is a last-four meeting with the British number one on Centre Court on Friday.

Roddick said: “I felt fine out there physically. I’m sure I’ll pull up a little bit sore, but that’s to be expected.”

The American has been rejuvenated by an off-season spent working on his fitness and his reward is a second grand slam semi-final in six months after he also reached the last four in Australia.

He continued: “I feel fit and I feel healthy. I’m in better shape now than I was when I was 24.”

On the other side of the draw, Tommy Haas is revelling in his dream Wimbledon run after finally putting a string of bad luck behind him. The 31-year-old German, who had never been past the fourth round in 10 previous visits to SW19, secured a 7-5 7-6 (8/6) 4-6 6-3 victory over fourth seed Novak Djokovic on Wednesday to set up a semi-final against tournament favourite Roger Federer.

Haas, seeded 24th, said: “In 13, 14 years of me playing Wimbledon, there’s a lot of bad luck involved. There was one year when I would have been maybe seeded three but my parents had a really bad motorcycle accident so I skipped that year.

“That’s all in the past. I always felt deep down that Wimbledon will maybe still have something left for me.”

Federer insists he is keeping thoughts of making tennis history firmly in the back of his mind. The second seed reached the semi-finals with a convincing 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7/3) victory over big-serving Ivo Karlovic.

He said: “I’m happy the way I’m playing, which is always most important,” said the five-time Wimbledon champion. I just won my quarters, so my mind has not started wondering yet. I think on Thursday I’ll prepare for a tough weekend ahead of me.”

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