Andy vs Federer: Kooyong Final

As his reward for knocking out Andy Murray in the semi finals, Andy will take on world number one Roger Federer in the Kooyong final on Saturday in Melbourne.

There’s not much in the game of tennis that Roger Federer hasn’t achieved. He’s the world number one, winner of 45 singles title so far, nine of them Grand Slam titles. He’s arguably the greatest player to ever pick up a racquet and he has a 12-1 head to head record over Andy.

But, it’s not all doom and gloom! The last two times that Andy has played Federer, incidentally both since Connors took over, Andy has seen a real improvement in the way the matches have gone. In the US Open final he was just points away from a two sets to one lead and arguably should have won the match they played in the Masters Cup, it was definitely one of the best performances Andy’s ever had against Federer. Federer has also looked slightly shaky at the start of 2007, being pushed all the way to a third set tie break by Stepanek before beating Marat Safin in a close match to make the final in Kooyong – so there’s room for optimism!

Win or lose, it’s a great chance for Andy to see where his game’s at before the Australian Open starts on Monday and he will have had three good matches under his belt come his first round match.

Going into the match Andy said: “I think it’s good to be hitting the ball well going into the Australian and it’s nice to have played a couple of top level players this week, that’s the priority. And it’s always nice to get a shot at Roger as well.

“I feel like I’ve been playing really well in practice this week, putting together a couple of wins here, so I’m definitely a lot further ahead as far as hitting the ball than I was last year at this time.

“We’re here to kind of get a feel and play some good tennis in a nice environment before the Aussie Open. I’m going to go out there and try to win a tennis match.”

The match will be played on Saturday in Kooyong. First up starting at 1pm local time (9pm Friday EST) is the third place match between Murray and Safin. There will then be some pre-final entertainment before Andy and Roger take to the court around 3-3.30pm (11-11.30pm Friday EST).

Good Luck, Andy!