Andy Ends Australian Open Run

“You do you best to try not to get discouraged, I’m just going to go back out there and keep working hard.”

After one hour and twenty three minutes on Rod Laver Arena court for the Men’s first Semifinal match, Roger hit winners as easy as one, two, three, and Andy couldn’t do much to stop the man who called himself “unbeatable” tonight.

Andy started the match on his racquet, but Roger spoke up loud and clear that this wasn’t going to be an easy journey and broke to lead 1-0. After the first sit-down with Roger leading 2-1, Andy came out swinging after seeming a bit late to warm up and broke back and held to lead 3-2. After a “volley war” at 4-4 on Roger’s second break point opportunity, Andy defended a shot that landed just out of bounds. Roger served for the match and held 6-4.

“First game in the second set was crucial,” Andy said in his post-match press conference. “He’s a great front-runner… he takes a lead and runs with it.” Andy opened the set serving, sending a 222 km/h serve and then an ace past the Swiss but the errors outweighed the lead and Andy was broken again. Andy would not win a game or more than ten points the rest of the set and was down two sets to love.

The crowd cheered as the third set was about to begin on the umpires call of “time,” trying to instill some confidence and energy into the player we all know was walking back out to the baseline. The first game of this set started the same as the other two, with Roger breaking Andy for an early lead. Roger’s passing shots, backhand, and ability to read Andy’s next move were second to none tonight, and Andy tried his best to play the match on his terms. Andy got on the board, but nothing seemed to “click” tonight. He couldn’t even get a high-five from the linesman. Andy held one more time with a superb volley, and then Roger stepped up to the baseline and sealed the lead 40-0 and the match to a roaring crowd- for both players- 6-4, 6-0, 6-2.

“My dad didn’t raise me to run away from it so here I am,” Andy said about facing the press after a tough loss like this. He’s heading home tomorrow and “trying to find the best way to move forward.” He had the packed media room cracking up with his post match wit, and even cracked a smile himself. There is a light at the end of this AO ’07 tunnel. Go Andy!