It took USA’s Andy Roddick 2 hours, 53 minutes to advance to the fourth round at Wimbledon but the important thing is that he did it.  The sixth-seeded player beat 26th-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 7-6 (7-2), 7-6 (7-2), 4-6, 6-3 despite the fact that Melzer managed to fire 26 aces.

image: Zuma Press

The end of the match was predictable – Melzer and Roddick have battled nine times in the past and the Austrian has lost every single time.  Since Roddick has been the runner-up to Roger Federer at Wimbledon in both 2004 and 2005, I’m sure his mind is beginning to wonder if history will repeat itself.  Roddick will play Czech Tomas Berdych in the fourth round.

Andy Murray has also advanced to the fourth round and I’m sure the British player’s hopes have been boistered by yesterday’s 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 win over Serb Viktor Troicki on the Centre Court at the All England Club.  The victory only took 1 hour, 36 minutes during which Murray served 17 aces.  He is hoping to become the first male British champion at Wimbledon since Fred Perry won in 1936.  He will face Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round.

Meanwhile, unseeded Lleyton Hewitt beat Germany’s Philipp Petzschner 7-5, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3.   Hewitt, who won the Wimbledon title in 2002, will face Czech Radek Stepanek in the fourth round.

Andy Murray has bought a home that was listed at £5.45 million.  The tennis star will share his new abode with his girlfriend, Kim Sears.  With Murray’s recent success, I’m not surprised at all to learn that he’s ditched his apartment in favor for this estate.  Who wouldn’t?

According to the Telegraph, the massive home features “a large rear lawn with summerhouse, an indoor swimming pool with sauna and jacuzzi, a library and games room.”  Surprisingly, the property does not include a tennis court.  That surprised me since I can’t imagine playing a sport professionally and not having an area to practice in my (several) million dollar home.  He will, however, be installing PlayStation consoles throughout the house…

A lot of people are wondering about the timing of this move since he really should be focusing on competing at Wimbledon next week.  If you’ve ever moved, you will know that it can be very difficult and a move of this magnitude has got to be at least a little distracting.  Who knows, though.  Everyone is different and maybe the transition will have a relaxing effect on him.  Maybe his old neighbors were loud and now he’ll be able to get some sleep.  Whatever the case, I wish him the best!

image: TSN

After a straight-set victory over America’s James Blake, Scottish tennis player, Andy Murray, took the 2009 Queen’s Club title as well at the $118,000 first prize.  The 7-5, 6-4 victory was Murray’s fourth this year (12th overall) and could be a great boost to his confidence before Wimbledon, although he’s made it clear that he isn’t worrying about the upcoming tournament.

“I’m not planning on getting caught up in the whole hype and the pressure, because I don’t think that that helps if you do” Murray said. “I’m going to try and just concentrate on playing and winning matches. You can let the pressure affect you if you want to. You can let the expectation get to you if you really want to, but I’m just going to play tennis and not worry about the rest of the stuff.”

image: Zuma Press

The win was also history-making since the last Brit to take the title at the event was Bunny Austin in 1938.  “It’s pretty special,” said Murray. “There have been some great grass-court players from Britain the last 70-odd years. Tim [Henman] and Greg [Rusedski] were both very good grass-court players. The names that are on the trophy, there’s a lot of great, great players. So to be on that trophy is great. Obviously, because it’s not happened that a British player has won for so long, that makes it nicer.”

With 2009 off to such a good start I am really interested in seeing what the rest of the year has in store for Murray.  Before Wimbledon, he will try his look on the grass courts of the All England Club.

The 2009 Queen’s Club final matchup is set with top-seeded Andy Murray squaring off against sixth-seeded James Blake. The pairing came after Murray won 6-2, 6-4 over unseeded Juan Carlos Ferrero in 1 hour and 11 minutes.

image: Zuma Press

Blake’s semifinal match came to an abrupt end when, with the score tied at 4-4, four-time Queen’s Club champion Andy Roddick withdrew from the match after suffering an ankle injury.

Murray is ranked third in the world with just Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer ahead of him.  I’m sure he would love to win the event since, after advances to the finals, he will be playing his first title match in his native Great Britain and could become the first Brit to take the title in 71 years (the last local to win was Bunny Austin way back in 1938).

Blake, on the other hand, has never won a title on a non-hard court but, if history is any indicator, he could upset the higher seeded, Murray – they’ve battled just once before and Blake emerged victorious at the 2006 ATP Masters Series.

This year’s 2009 Aegon champion will take home $117,000.

Roger Federer is getting ready for Paris by defeating Robin Soderling 6-1, 7-5 at the Masters Series Madrid. Unfortunately, Federer has a chance of losing his number 2 ranking to Andy Murray if he doesn’t have a good showing at the joint ATP and WTA event.

“It’s about playing well and getting ready for Paris,” said Federer. “It’s good to get the first match.”

Federer came out strong and took advantage of his opponents unforced errors.

The Swiss star hit 24 winners and took advantage of the Swedish player’s 25 unforced errors to capture four break points. Federer fired down 11 aces, including on the final point to clinch his place in the third round.

Andy Murray had a tough win against Simone Bolelli, 7-6 (9), 6-4. Next up for Murray is No. 16 Tommy Robredo who defeated Mardy Fish of the United States 3-6, 7-6 (5), 6-2.

Source: NBC Sports

Image Credit: Newscom

Due to rain delays on Thursday (April 16) Rafael Nadal had to win two matches on Friday (April 17) to move him one step closer to winning his fifth straight title at the Monte Carlo Masters. Did he succeed? Of course he did!

Nadal defeated Nicolas Lapentti 6-3, 6-0 and Ivan Ljubicic 6-3, 6-3. This takes him to 25 winning matches in Monte Carlo.

“I don’t remember ever winning two singles matches in one day, only doubles,” Nadal said. “I didn’t have a very long match (in the morning), so I was totally 100 percent to play the second. That’s important.”

Nadal’s next match is against Andy Murray, who defeated Nikolay Davydenko 7-6 (1), 6-4.

“Every time I play against Nikolay he makes me run a lot, so I was prepared for that going into the match,” Murray said. “I was down 4-1 and managed to fight back. I’m quite looking forward to getting into my bed now.”

I am definitely looking forward to a Nadal/Murray match.

Source: Tennis.com

Image Credit: Bauer Griffin

Andy Murray has defeated Novak Djokovic at the Sony Ericsson Open today in Miami. FL. He grabbed the title with a 6-2, 7-5 win. It was an unexpected win and was one fun match to watch. Murray was the first Brit to win this title.

Djokovic seemed to be a little confused in the second set and it was Murray’s to win.

The best example of that was the penultimate game of the second set today, in which Murray broke Djokovic in a way that was both unexpected and mortifying. Djokovic, playing spectator at his own execution, lost four straight points, at least two of them because his mind didn’t seem to be on the task at hand, and another because he got caught in the mid-court area, uncertain about whether to hang back or swarm the net.

Djokovic, like any great tennis player, knew what cost him the match.

“I was really impatient,” Djokovic said. “I made huge number of unforced errors and he was playing solid and waiting for his chances.”

Andy definitely started to struggle a bit in the second match, but was able to bag the win after getting his rhythm back.

“Novak started rushing me, he started to shorten the points and I struggled a little bit. He was coming in (to net) 60, 70 percent of the time in that second set. I lost my rhythm a little in that second set but I got it back.”

Check out some video highlights from the match below. Read more

This is going to be one great day of men’s tennis at the Indian Wells Tournament . We will see some of the best of the best play each other.

On Friday, March 20 , Andy Roddick defeated Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-2 and will face No.1 Rafael Nadal today in the semifinals. This is a match I am looking forward to! This would be Nadal’s third win at Indian Wells in three years. He reached the semifinals by defeating Juan Martin del Potro 6-2, 6-4.
Roger Federer will face Andy Murray today in the other semifinal. Again, this is a match I am stoked to see!

Stay tuned for the results of these matches and to see who will be heading to the finals!

Image Credit: Newscom

Not all kisses are created equal. 

Here’s what we liked best about the 2008 U.S. Open:

And here’s what almost ruined the whole tournament for us:

Images: Used with permission of www.newscom.com

The first picture shows our fave athlete of all time, Roger Federer, planting a wet one on us, in our most joyous dreams the U.S. Open trophy. The Fed Express collected his record 5th straight U.S. Open title and 13th major overall—quelling all the naysayers who pegged him as “done” after the loss to Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon.

The second picture shows our least favorite person ever to co-host “The View,” Star Jones. The some-would-say unlucky fella she’s puckering up with is Herb Wilson. (Are we the only ones who find the irony and/or humor in the fact that the gastric bypass lady is dating a chef?)

Consider this our official plea to the media: No more pictures of Star Jones playing kissyface, preferably forever but at least not when Roger Federer is still in the tournament.

It’s a testament to our willpower and Fed-affection that we were able to watch the rest of the U.S. Open despite the ever-looming threat of more Star-Herb candids. What did tennis fans do to deserve that?

*Cue the drum roll, jugglers, and acrobats*

After a week of vacation-y bliss, yours truly is back at the helm of Gossip On Sports. We’re defrosting our icy heart just long enough to thank Channel Editor Kori Ellis of The Fantasy Kickoff for filling in for us while we were away.

We apologize for not telling you about the vacay in advance, but we didn’t want autograph hounds and paparazzi to follow us all over Arizona. (It’s OK to laugh. That’s a joke. Truth is, we’re not even sure anyone noticed we were gone).

Anyhow, in the spirit of back-to-school “What I Did This Summer” essays and to prove that this lil’ ol’ blog was never far removed from this bloggerette’s mind, here are a few random sports-related observations from the vacation:

• We took an awesome, everyone-fit-enough-should-do-it 12-mile, 7-hour mule ride into the Grand Canyon. Despite our fatigue as we neared the end, we gave a hearty shout to the hiker chick with a Boston Red Sox cap.
• The Bee bought an Arizona Diamondbacks t-shirt in lieu of the fact that we didn’t *actually* see a snake.
• Happily, we had a lovely, spacious room at the Enchantment Resort. This was important after the Federer-Djokovic semifinal of the U.S. Open, because we were able to jump around like a pre-teen at a Miley Cyrus concert without getting hurt or knocking over furniture.
• A hostess at said resort had a name tag indicating Cooperstown, NY as her hometown, so we told her how much we’d enjoyed a trip there to the Baseball Hall of Fame. That was OK. Then we found out she was a Yankees fan. That’s when The Bee’s wife (that would be me) said, “End of discussion, next subject!” as a joke. But it wasn’t really a joke. We only pretended it was.
• Sadly, yesterday (Sunday) was our travel day, which interfered with our viewing pleasure of the Pats-Chiefs game (though being spared QB Tom Brady’s season-ending injury is a good thing), the Nadal-Murray semifinal of the U.S. Open, and the Williams-Jankovic women’s final. The upside? We get to watch the Federer-Murray final. Unless Fed starts to lose, in which case we’ll just play the Wii.

          (ETA: Roger Federer won! And we only knocked over two things off the end table in the course of our celebratory cartwheels).

It’s good to be back! All that pent-up snark was beginning to take it’s toll on us, you know.