Was that Roddick on fire, or is the Beijing ghost rearing its head?

 

Nadal, Djokovic, Federer, Wawrinka and now Gonzalez.  Aren’t these the players who also won a medal at Beijing? And Querrey, Cilic, Andreev, Murray and Roddick didn’t?

Is that what’s going on here?

So we should expect a Roddick-Murray final?

Roddick simply steamrolled Gonzalez in every department. Initially I felt Gonzalez was feeling the ‘Blake’ Olympic incident, since this was the first time he faced an American after that controversy on US soil. Maybe it had something to do with it, specially when you have Roddick across the net. Roddick is not known to mince any words if he feels strongly about something.

But Gonzalez looked completely lost. You cannot just fall apart like that after having a decent run here and at the Olympics. How else can you explain it?

But Roddick was pleased to be feeling the way he felt when he was at the top of his game. He was pretty close. It may have a lot to do with what happened in his match against Gulbis. That come from behind win, more than anything else, raised Roddick belief in himself.

From what looked like a whitewash in the first set, Roddick was able to turn it around by making adjustments on the fly. That may have been just what he needed at the right moment to make his last and final assault on his favorite Slam.

If the Beijing bug is really kicking in, Roddick may be in luck and his decision to skip Olympics may now become standard MO for anyone wanting to win the US Open in future. I mean, that rest and focus has to tilt the scale in your favor somewhere.

Roddick’s win must be even more sweet after watching two legit contenders play gruelling five setters against much lesser opponents. It must give him lot of hope that this may be his time.

The crowd has been heavily behind Roddick who loves that kind of attention and support.

Roddick’s next opponent, Djokovic, has played two back to back tense, emotional and long matches. With the history Djokovic has, coupled with the fact that Roddick beat him at Dubai this year, right after beating Nadal in the previous match, Roddick has to be very upbeat and confident going in.

If Roddick pulls this one out of a rabbit, the credit so far will far will fall in two boxes: Skipping Oympics and beating Gulbis.

But there’s a long road ahead. Just one more Gulbis, couple of those Beijing bugs and Roddick is home free.

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