We attended the quarterfinals in Mason yesterday evening and got the chance to watch an exciting match between Andy Roddick and Andy Murray. One son was rooting for “A-Rod” while the other was rooting for “A-Mur”… I was the guy in the stands screaming “foot fault” when Murray was serving at the later stages of the match. Since I brought my Canon Digital Rebel XT with telephoto lens, I was able to capture proof of the faults (see photo below – notice foot is on the baseline before the ball is struck).
Murray has made some real progress since Brad Gilbert became his coach, however, he still needs to add some toughness and endurance to his game. I realize that he beat Henman, Federer, and Genepri during this tournament, but he appears to languish and slow down anytime he gets into the second set of a tough match. Meanwhile, I have to give Roddick some real credit. He used to be a single-dimensional player (“big serve and pray”), but he has really started to refine his tennis game over the last couple of months. Roddick has added very nice net play, and he has modified his service strategy to allow for a wide 95 mph kick/spin on first serve. This works especially well against those players that like to stand 10 feet behind the baseline trying to return his 135 mph flat serve.
Note: On Saturday, there is a big doubles semifinals match between the perpetual champions, “the Bryan brothers” versus the up-and-coming doubles team from Israel, Erlich and Ram. You may recall the Andy Ram won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon earlier this year.