Lesson to be learned for has been Hewitt

Well the good news from yesterday was that the Williams sisters both advanced to the Wimbledon final at the expense of their Russian opponents. Venus did so in emphatic style over first seed Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-0 which was over in just 51 minutes. Serena on the other hand scraped through after coming back from the brink of defeat to win a three set thriller 6-7, 7-5, 8-6 over Elena Dementieva. Serena certainly has the fighting spirit to compete with her sister but with all the mistakes she committed in her game I just don’t think she will have enough to tip the scale in her favour.

Looking at the men’s competition. Federer progressed in straight sets at the expense of Tommy Haas to the glee of myself and I’m sure a lot of others who greatly admire the sportsmanship of the Swiss star. In the other semi Andy Roddick was too strong for Brittish favourite Andy Murray leaving Lleyton Hewitt to look quite the twit.

Hewitt had been relieved of his wimbledon chances again this year when he was defeated in the quarters by Roddick. To make matters worse for Hewitt he committed the sin of making negative comments about his opponent’s future in the tournament in the media. Let me say this now to ensure the moral of the story, never ever make negative comments about your opponent after you lose fair and square.

In Hewitts comments he basically gave Roddick as much chance of winning the semifinal tie as North Korea have of winning next years FIFA world cup. Hewitt made comments that Roddicks game was still the same as three years ago and hasn’t showed improvement while Murray has improved in leaps and bounds.

For me experience can be as important as form and that being said Roddick definitely has the experience with regard to Wimbledon having already appeared in the final twice. Playing in front of the huge crowd with such levels of expectation definitely counted against Murray and despite his good form Roddick had been there before and knew what was needed to make it through and he stuck to it and was a worthy winner in the end.

Roddick displayed a perfect performance of showing his ability instead of advertising it over the media when he refused to comment on Hewitts harsh words. Whatever people want to say about Roddick he certainly showed good sportsmanship and professionalism in not launching into Hewitt but rather showing his metal in his win. All the best to him for the final and the future but as much as I admire him I will still be fully behind Federer come Sundays final.