Recently retired Andy Roddick beat third-ranked Andy Murray 6-2, 6-3 on Saturday in the Miami Tennis Cup exhibition event.
Roddick will play 11th-ranked Nicolas Almagro of Spain in the final Sunday. Almagro advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over 14th-ranked John Isner.
Murray, trailing 2-5 in the first set, surrendered his serve in the eighth game when he sailed a backhand crosscourt wide. In the second set, Murray saved two break points from down 0-40, but couldn’t convert the third to give Roddick a 5-3 lead. At 15-0, Roddick double-faulted twice in a row, but went on to win the final three points of the match with a service winner and two forehand winners.
‘’If we had gone three sets I would’ve had a full body cramp and it would’ve been awkward for all of you,’’ said Roddick, who kept a running dialogue with the crowd. ‘’There’s no comeback (to tennis for me).
‘’Andy was nice to me tonight.’’
Roddick has put on four pounds since retiring following the US Open. He says he’s content in retirement and is playing a lot of golf.
‘’I don’t miss the travel at all,’’ Roddick said. ‘’It’s nice coming here and seeing familiar faces. I still enjoy hitting tennis balls, but I haven’t lost that part of it. I haven’t lost any of the innocent parts of tennis. I just do it in front of less people.’’
Murray, the Olympic gold medalist and U.S. Open champion, wasn’t surprised that Roddick won.
‘’Andy hasn’t hit that many balls the last few months,’’ Murray said. ‘’Maybe his timing was a little bit off, but he still hits the ball very well. It was only a few months ago he was making a decent run at the U.S. Open.’’
Roddick has beaten Almagro both times they met in straight sets and both meetings were on hard courts. They met here at Crandon Park in the 2010 Miami Masters quarterfinals and the 2011 Shanghai Masters in the round of 16.
