Though this is an exhibition match, it may be the rivalry for this year. What do you guys think will happen? ARod has been getting closer and closer to beating Federer the last few times they met and tomorrow he may reverse the result.

Roger's greatest threat in the AO would not be Safin or Nadal but Roddick.

Roddick needs a surface conducive to his serve and Rebound Ace is not that surface.

Tbh, though I expect Federer will win, a Roddick victory here would not surprise me. Fed's not likely to give the match away, but will be somewhat more focused on getting himself prepared for the AO than on winning this match.

I much agree with this. I can easily envisage Roddick win as he will certainly put more heart into it than Federer i feel. I see a tensed 2 setter or a relaxed 3 setter but certainly not a tensed 3 setter. Their minds are already in Melbourne.

Federer will win in 3 sets.

Roddick won the first set 6-2, breaking Fed twice. :blink:

Fed takes the second 6-3.

After fighting off a few break points, Roddick breaks Fed in the third, and takes the third set, and the match, 6-3.

Gotta feel good to Andy ... What do you reckon he's gonna do this year? Can he get back to the American #1 spot? How about reclaiming world #2 from Nadal? Could be interesting.

Now that I'm sure the trolls have finished changing their underwear, may I remind them that this was an exhibition match and won't count towards head to heads. So unless I'm mistaken, it still reads Roddick 1 Federer 12.

It's too easy to say Wise......but finally when you predict a Fed win......he goes down!!!! :P

Get in there Roddick!!!!!!! I really do hope this is the start of a decent challenge from someone against Federer. Don't get me wrong, I am a big Federer fan, but all this relentless winning is boring for me.

Well done Andy! :D

Yes, it's an exhibition match, but a win is a win. It is clear that A-Rod has some excellent momentum from his strong showing in the second half of last season.

Along with the Masters and the USO, it confirms Federer's thoughts at Wimbledon last year where he thought that his likely opponent in the final would be Roddick.

I guess the biggest test is whether Andy can sustain this level to win in a bests of 5 match against Fed, which he is yet to do. But this win is certainly a step in the right direction for him.

Hmm.. I have to say that it isn't boring for me just by the fact that his game is such pleasure to watch.. but I'd like to see closer matches, more often than not bringing out both the best in Fed and his opponent.. with Fed winning more than 90% of the time, of course.. :)

Good result for Roddick here!!! Sounds like Federer was trying to practice his S & V skills and just didn't get very far? I'm sure this will be a good confidence booster for Roddick, and i agree with others that it'd be nice to see a bit more of a rivalry between these two.

For me Federer's game is a pleasure to watch, hence my not minding him being the dominant player. Much prefer a player with an all court game to a one trick pony who only wins because they have a big serve.

If a mechanical, serve-machine type of player was as dominant as Federer is, tennis would be much more boring I think.

Wise's prediction was true in a certain way. If this was a competetive match, Roddick would have been overawed by the thought that he is beating the world no.1 and may have folded. There was no pressure in this match and thus he won.
But I would definitely want him to meet Federer in the semis to see what'll happen.

Except it was wrong....... :P

i'm sure Wise will be happy to be proved wrong in this case, so long as he didn't go and place any bets roflmao

I dont think Fed or his fans will lose any sleep over this at all ! ! Not a surprise. :)
I had a feeling he mightnt be trying too hard, and needs to lose occasionally to take the expectations off himself ! ;)
But Andy deserved a win after running him so close the last two times they played. Heres for a rivalry between them in 2007 ( Fed winning most of them of course )!
Great to see Fed serve-volleying .

Nice to see some of the Federer fanatics frantically denying this result means anything. In all fairness, this result will only be of any relevance to Roddick. Even if he played Federer in a game of tiddly-winks during a Wimbledon rain break, I'd have tipped him to choke, but there's a chance this victory will give him some self-belief if he gets close to a winning position in future meetings. Other than that, all this match did is prove that the Swiss can't volley.

Still don't see Roddick being able to defeat Federer on rebound ace but I agree with you chet that if he continues in his current vein, he has a great chance of toppling Fed at Wimbledon or the US Open. Oh, and given the way my predictions seem to go...

Flawless Federer Flattens Fearful Phau. 3-0 to the Swiss.

*looks for signs of frantic behaviour :unsure: *

Of course, it means a little something, just as Tommy Haas' victory over Fed last year in this event meant a little something. But it doesn't mean too much. ;)

Good win for Roddick, though. I tend to pull for the Americans, anyway, so I'd love to see Andy repeat this kind of win at the Aussie. :ok:

Wise, you seem fascinated with predictions, so why not take part in the Prediction Contests here? ;)



P.S. You seem to act differently on here than you do on the BBC. Your posts seem "watered down" somewhat - why is this?

Right - so you doubt Roddick can beat Federer on Rebound Ace - fair enough.

Can I ask then why you predicted a 6-2 6-4 6-4 stroll in the park for Roddick if they meet at Melbourne Park.

Are you lying here, or are you lying on the BBC board? Or are you lying on both?

Included below is Anal's posting from the 606 board - just incase anyone is tempted to take him seriously as anything other than an anti-Federer troll.

Since the draw for the Australian Open came out last night, I've been awake, vigerously conducting all the appropriate statistical and factual research. I can now reveal to the knowledgeable members of the board that transitional number 1 Roger Federer has officially no chance of regaining the title he so fortunately won in Melbourne last year.

Round 1. Bjorn Phau already boasts a commanding H2H against Federer, and the Swiss will be unable to make any inroads here. 6-4, 6-2, 6-0 to the German.

Round 2. Jonas Bjorkman was on the end of an unfortunate defeat to Federer in last year's Wimbledon semi-final. The Swede will be gunning for revenge, and would complete a ruthless 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 triumph should Phau choke under the pressure of being favourite.

Round 3. Mikhael Youzhny was in stunning form at the US Open a few months ago, elimating the brilliant Rafael Nadal. In the unlikely occasion that Federer gets this far, a hugely demoralising 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 defeat would surely ensue.

Round 4. Novak Djokovic has already proclaimed he wants to be number 1 some day, which implies he's no choker. Federer won't get this far, but in any case the Serb would run riot in a 6-2, 6-1, 6-3 victory.

QF. Richard Gasquet is far more talented than Federer, and boasts a backhand which the Swiss can only dream of having. The next Pete Sampras would win 6-0, 6-1, 6-0 in a hugely embarrassing demolition, and go on to win the first of many Slams.

SF. Andy Roddick should have beaten Federer in straight sets at the Masters Cup but he choked badly. Him and Connors have since had time to get over this. The result, a venomous serve volley performance and a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 stroll in the park for the American.

Final - Now we're entering the realms of fantasy. The only way Federer could get this far is through an outrageous amount of choking/injured opponents. If that did happen though, Rafael Nadal would be on hand to inflict a 6-0, 6-0, 6-0 whitewash on the man from Basle, ending his career.

Because he saves his real trolling for boards where the mods will let him away with it.

:rolleyes: Relax, Andy. I think we all know much of what Wise wrote on the beeb board was tongue-in-cheek (or perhaps wishful thinking).

I did chuckle at your predictions above, though. :D



:blush: Sorry, misread it at first. I thought that was your interpretation of what Wise would have written on BBC. Didn't realise it was his actual post from 606.

Nice to see that the change of year hasn't dented Chet's willingness to state that black is white, up is down, and right is wrong - so long as he can polish Anal's backside in the process.

I have only occasionally checked out 606, and have to agree with Andy's observation that there is a whole lot of troll-ridden crap there.. It's not annoying, just boring really. Yawn.

It's rubbish, and i'm not even just talking about all the trolling. The whole set up of that board is awful. You can;t tell when new posts have been made, when you search the posts automatically come up sorted by rating order rather than date order, and all the hosts do is post the latest story from the BBC Tennis website - which is generally something about "Murray says he may win something at some point in his career" or "Murray moves one ranking place" etc etc. If you add in all the trolling, it's just not worth looking at (except maybe to have a giggle at some of the predictions of Fed losing to a 1 legged kangeroo, or whatever)

I haven't visited 606 since the tennis forum closed and by the look of it, I won't.

Well done Andy, I was expecting him to do it in straight sets but this is still good enough. With Nadal out of form we certainly need someone else to be the Federer/weak era slayer. B)