 Roddick is through to his third Wimbledon final, having lost in 2004 and 2005 to Federer
By Tim Henman
Former British number one |
 I don't think we should focus on Andy Murray's performance too much. First and foremost we should give Andy Roddick the credit for a brilliantly executed display. Players rightly take 99% of the credit, but I think his coach Larry Stefanki got his game-plan spot on and Roddick went out and implemented it in a first-class manner. His serving, as ever, was phenomenal. He was firing it down at 130mph-plus all the time, he was hitting the corners and making nearly eight out of 10 first serves. When you are holding serve like that it puts a tremendous amount of pressure on your opponent and Murray struggled to cope.  | As I discovered more than once, losing a semi-final does really hit you. I knew how important it was to deal with the situation with a sense of perspective |
When Roddick and Stefanki sat down to plan for this game their tactics would have been to exercise controlled aggression. There is no point just trying to blast your way through Murray as he has got too much guile and his movement is too good. You've got to wait for the right opportunity as Murray's not going to hit you off the court so you will get chances. If you can be selective and look to try and finish the point off at the net that is going to be an effective tactic. I felt if they got into baseline rallies then Murray would win a larger percentage of the points, but again that didn't happen because of Roddick's level of play. It is something like that Roddick is going to have to do again and then some if he is going to beat Roger Federer in the final. I don't think there was so much wrong with Murray's own service game. He only lost his serve twice in the whole match so he is obviously doing a good job. | 606: DEBATE |
His service percentage was down a little bit as he was getting about 65% of his first serves in during earlier rounds, but in this match it probably dipped to into the 50s. If you are really going to critique him then maybe that was something he would have liked to have done better. There will be a feeling that Murray has missed an opportunity this year with defending champion Rafael Nadal out through injury. Expectation had just grown and grown and rightly so given the standards he has been setting. In a couple of weeks Murray will be able to look back and reflect on his most successful Wimbledon ever, a semi-final at the age of 22 is really impressive. There are going to be finals down the line and hopefully a host of Grand Slam titles. I'm convinced he is going to win them because he is that good a player.  Murray came up against Roddick in inspired form |
As I discovered more than once, losing a semi-final does really hit you. I knew how important it was to deal with the situation with a sense of perspective, even though it must have been difficult for Andy given that there has been such hype around this. Andy's very level-headed. He will be bitterly disappointed for the next few days, but as he unwinds and has a chance to reflect he will feel proud of the way he played and very motivated to respond in a positive manner. It was 12 months ago that he responded amazingly to his big defeat to Rafael Nadal here at Wimbledon and I'm sure he will respond equally well to this. He is so competitive and has put in so much good work that there is a lot more to come. It helps that the tennis season plays into his hands now as the tour moves on to the hard-court season, which is his best surface. It's tough to look ahead because he will be reflecting on this match so much and playing it through his mind, but certainly when it is time to prepare there are a lot of opportunities out there and another Grand Slam to target at the US Open.
Tim Henman was speaking to BBC Sport's Paul Birch.
Tennis on the BBC
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