There was a certain key difference in Andy Roddick’s game that popped up last year. Instead of just being the king of the serve, he worked on his return game with Larry Stefanki. Madness. This meant working on the comical disaster that was the backhand, and using the relatively flat and powerful forehand as a weapon.
I didn’t see the match, but I can tell by the stats that Dick was very much playing a “not lose” kind of match. It’s tough to expect to show up and play live Ivo and win every match on grass. Chances are you’ll run into a hot player, miss a couple first serves, and get broken. And have no chance to get back into it without a return game. And so it goes. Dudi Sela of all people knocked out Dick today, 6-4, 7-6(8).
Dudi served at 63%, won 76% off his first serve and 78% off his second serve. He faced one break point all match and saved it. The conditions have been crap all day, and can definitely be blamed for some of the crazy results today, but Sela is a pretty big server, and the conditions are the same for him. Dick’s gonna need to find some in roads and work on that return game if he wants another legit shot at Wimbledon.
I watched the match from beginning to end. I have no idea what Andy was doing or whether he expected Dudi to roll over for him. Dudi made some wonderful gets out there. He played his heart and he completely flummoxed Andy with his ROS. He kept blocking it back to Andy with absolutely no pace and Andy had no idea what to do. While I was watching the match I thought to myself this is exactly why Fed has so much wins against him. Fed reads his serve so well, he chips it back most of the time and gets Andy in the rallies which he ultimately loses. It was like watching Fed light out there today.
Interesting. Thanks for the break down.