Second-seeded American Andy Roddick unleashed the full power of his awesome artillery to crush the brave resistance of Croatia’s Mario Ancic 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 and set up a Wimbledon title showdown with defending champion Roger Federer on Saturday.
The 21-year-old Roddick becomes the first American to reach the men’s final since 2000 when Pete Sampras won the last of his seven titles and on Sunday will go in search of his second Grand Slam title to add to his US Open crown.
But he had to battle against the fickle English summer weather as well as Ancic before he carved out his 21st win in his last 22 grass-court matches.
Roddick led the semifinal 6-4, 4-3 on Friday before rain brought a premature finish with Ancic, who knocked out Tim Henman in the last eight, coming out firing on Saturday’s resumption to level the tie.
However, the American was saved by Saturday’s first rain stoppage and, from that point, he never looked back.
Ancic, ranked 63rd in the world, had been trying to emulate his boyhood hero Goran Ivanisevic, the 2001 winner, by making the final and he started well on Saturday.
The 20-year-old Croatian was reborn breaking back to go 4-4 in the second set, holding impressively to sneak ahead and then levelling the match with a confident, deep backhand to take the set 6-4.
It was the first set Roddick had dropped in the tournament.
Ancic then wasted five break points to take a 2-0 in the third set in a marathon game which featured a rally of 34 strokes as, again, Roddick called on his big serve and booming groundstrokes to get him out of trouble.
Ancic went to 5-4 when the players were forced off court one again.
The young Croatian was furious as it wasn’t actually raining at the time and his mood was not helped when they returned half an hour later and Roddick reeled off the next three games to take the third set 7-5 after two hours on court.
Play was then suspended again before the start of the third set and on the resumption Ancic earned his ninth break point of the match courtesy of a Roddick double fault.
But, again, Roddick used his big serve to dig himself out of trouble with his 10th ace quashing the threat.
Ancic’s inability to consistently crack the American began to lean heavily on him and his sixth double fault of the tie in the 11th game gave Roddick a break and a 6-5 lead.
The brave Croatian saved two match points in the 12th game, failed to take a break point and was made to pay when Roddick set up a third match point which he converted with a storming forehand. — Sapa-AFP