Andy Murray admires Andy Roddick’s performance at the Miami exhibition event – Tennis News
British number one, Andy Murray, suffered a cracking straight-sets upset at the hands of the former world number one, Andy Roddick, at the Miami Tennis Cup last week end. He was rated as the hot favourite against the American veteran
but Roddick put all his years’ experience into play and surpassed the reigning US Open champion with an assertive score line of 6-2, 6-3.
Despite facing defeat from a retired opponent, Murray openly praised the American old horse for his stunning performance. He wasn’t expecting Roddick to post such aggressive game play against the reigning world number three player
and certainly was surprised to see him as the victor.
“Andy hasn’t hit that many balls the last few months,” Murray said. “Maybe his timing was a little bit off, but he still hits the ball very well. It was only a few months ago he was making a
decent run at the US Open.”
Roddick showed his vintage class throughout the matchup and never allowed any opening to Murray at any point. He was off to a flyer in the opening set, imposing an unassailable lead of 5-2 in literally no time. Murray couldn’t
do much about his trail and eventually submitted the first set in the eighth game to finish 2-6.
The former world number one continued with his winning impetus in the following set and kept launching frequent forays upon the British opponent. Murray saved two successive break points in the eighth game but Roddick’s third attempt
proved successful and he reached 5-3 to serve for the match. The home favourite felt no trouble in wrapping up the match with complete authority, finishing the set at 6-3.
Murray had planned to play the exhibition tournament in Florida for the sake of practice in the off-season but couldn’t yield results he desired. Other big names in the Miami field were Nicolas Almagro, John Isner and Juan Carlos
Ferrero.
Roddick took on Almagro in the final of the Miami Tennis Cup on Sunday evening but the Spaniard proved far tough competitor than Murray. Almagro outmuscled Roddick to win the exhibition event trophy with sheer ease.
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