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  • Sony Ericsson Open Semifinal: Andy Roddick vs. Nikolay Davydenko

    4/4/08 2:22 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Both men have been on the brink of elimination in Miami, but Andy Roddick and Nikolay Davydenko have survived to set up a Friday night semifinal showdown at the Sony Ericsson Open.

    Andy Roddick took down Roger Federer on Thursday, but there is work left to do. The question is will he suffer a letdown against Nikolay Davydenko in the semifinals of the Masters Series Miami less than 24 hours after his gigantic win. It seems like that is the only way Roddick could lose, as he is a perfect 5-0 against the Russian in head-to-head meetings, including 4-0 on hard courts.

    Considering Roddick’s current form, now is probably not the best time for Davydenko to break through. The American—in addition to defeating Federer yesterday—is only three weeks removed from a huge title in Dubai, where he ousted Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal en route to the final. It hasn’t been smooth sailing in Miami, but Roddick has heated up with each match. In the second round he was level at 4-4 in the third set with Viktor Troicki before holding serve and then breaking to prevail 6-4. Against unheralded Ivo Minar in round three, Roddick took the first set in a tiebreaker and squandered a break in the second frame before recovering to win in straight sets. On Tuesday night he dropped the first set to in-form Julien Benneteau, but Roddick again righted the ship to win in three. That propelled him into the quarterfinal clash with Federer, in which his serve was on fire and the rest of his game was also outstanding. A 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3 triumph gave Roddick his second career win over Federer in 17 tries.

    Davydenko has also endured some enormous struggles on his way to the semifinals. The No. 4 player in the world was one point from elimination in his first match with Ernests Gulbis before he rallied from a one-set deficit to survive in a third-set tiebreaker. Davydenko also lost opening frame in each of his next to matches against Simone Bolelli and Mario Ancic. Finally things were more routine in the quarterfinals, where Davydenko breezed past Janko Tipsarevic 6-2, 6-1.

    Roddick has been a part of these huge stages a lot more frequently than Davydenko, who consistently goes deep in big tournaments but fails to take a next step by winning a signature title. That’s been the case in 2008, as Roddick already has the Dubai title in his name whereas Davydenko has been to two semifinals but lost both. If Roddick serves like he did against Federer, the road ends at yet another semifinal for Davydenko. If Davydenko manages to turn this match into a baseline grind and lull his opponent into backhand-to-backhand rallies, this one will be close. Under normal circumstances Roddick would be a hands-down pick to win this semifinal matchup going away, but it will be interesting to see how he bounces back one day after such an emotional victory.

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Comments

I watched the match and i dont think Roddic is very intelligent when he served for the match. He was 40-0 leading and he had 6 balls to seve assuming the he did not serve well in the first serve. Knowing that he can sever well in this match he should hit hard for all the 6 balls. Instead he seved soft for the second balls. By chance he should get one out of the 6 balls and beat Roger. He was fortunate to win.

hkfong , 4/4/08 4:53 PM


Lets go Nicky!!

RafaNadalGirl20 , 4/4/08 5:33 PM


It's amazing Davy has come this far - in his FIRST match of the tournament he was down match point to Gulbis and Gulbis had an EASY backhand winner opportunity but he blasted it wide. Incredible.

hkfong - you can say Roddick was fortunate to win due to continued sub-par play from Federer, but I don't know what the problem was with Roddick's last service game. It's always hard to serve out a match, and even HARDER when it's against Federer, and even HARDER when you are 1-15 lifetime against Federer. But Roddick handled the pressure, jumped out to a 40-0 lead, then blasted a 140+ mph service winner at 40-30. As far as I'm concerned, that's what you call a GREAT service game.

RickyDimon , 4/4/08 6:43 PM


This time Roddic was a bit unfortunate in the sense that he was leading in the second game. I must also give credit to Davy. He was extremely fit when he played Roddic and he could return many of Roddic's hard serves. Davy doesnt look like a 'normal' person as he can run around to reply all Roddic's attacks. Besides he could also serve very well. To win a game it is not only you play well you need the opponent to make mistakes. The reason Davy won was he had less mistakes and he could serve and play well. Let's see today's game when he plays with Nadal.

hkfong , 4/5/08 7:22 AM


Further to my commnets on Rod and Roger match, I would say Rod can beat Roger any time in the future if he is using the right strategy. I hope Rod reads this blog. The strtegy is very simple. He should capitalise his strength - his sevice. The other strategy is to look at past results and the points that he lost. I analyse the match and notice that he lost 90% of his rallies. So why rally? Go for big serves. The other psychological factor is Roger is a great player there is nothing to lose even you play badly. Let me tell you one of my own experience. I play table tennis very often with a parter who beat me most of the time around 90%. Then I woke up one day and said there is nothing to lose if I just keep on attacking. Using this strategy, I am now evenly match my partner. I can predict that Rod can win if he uses the right strategy and capitalise his strengths.

hkfong , 4/5/08 7:56 AM


hkfong - Trust me Roddick knows the strategy to beat Federer. Everyone knows it, but ESPECIALLY Roddick. It's not a piece of cake to implement that strategy effectively every single time against the best player in the world and arguably the best player ever.

Also no offense but it's painfully obvious that you did not watch Thursday's Roddick-Federer match. It's true that Roddick served unbelievably, but FYI he won AT LEAST half of the rallies and I'd venture to say he won even more than half.

RickyDimon , 4/5/08 4:39 PM



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