| Roger Federer confident for 5th Wimbledon Title Run |
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| Written by Zico Kelly | |||||||
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Sunday, 01 July 2007
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 Swiss strokemaker Roger Federer must now surely be highly confident of landing a fifth successive Wimbledon crown as the tournament heads into the second week.With chief rival Rafael Nadal facing the prospect of four matches in the final six days if he is to come through, it is little wonder that Federer is being strongly traded at 1/3 with the bookies. Sportsbook.com has Rafael Nadal a heavy -800 odds favorite in his next match against Robin Soderling. The Swiss maestro was never tested by a bitterly disappointing Safin in his last match, though credit must go to Federer for not giving the notoriously moody Russian the merest sniff of an upset. The Fed Express raced through the first set in just 19 minutes, committing just one unforced error, and kept up his momentum to win 88 per cent of first-serve points and eight out of 11 points at the net. Andy Roddick was also in impressive form as he cruised past Fernando Verdasco in straight sets, but many are still question whether the big serving American has what it takes to grab the Wimbledon title – at least with Federer around. He has really made a name for himself at SW19, reaching the last 16 of a Grand Slam for the first time. The world number 64 beat fifth seed Fernando Gonzalez in his last game, coming back from a break down in the final set on his Centre Court debut. His tennis thus far has been outstanding and his facial piercings and tattoos have drawn a lot of media attention. One of his tattoos reads: "The beauty will save the world" from The Idiot by classical Russian writer Dostoevsky, who his mother encouraged him to read as a boy. Sportsbook.com has posted Wimbledon odds on the 3rd Round Matchups for July 2nd, 2007 that start at 5:00 AM EST: Nikolay Davydenko +125 Gael Monfils -175 David Nalbandian +115 Marcos Baghdatis -145 Lleyton Hewitt -350 Guillermo Canas +225 Nicolas Kiefer +300 Novak Djokovic -500 Jonas Bjorkman -300 Wayne Arthurs +200 Mikhail Youzhny -200 Jarkko Nieminen +150 Robin Soderling +450 Rafael Nadal -800 Juan Carlos Ferrero -155 Janko Tipsarevic +115 Andy Roddick -600 Paul-Henri Mathieu +350 Richard Gasquet -225 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga +165                        |
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| Last Updated ( Sunday, 01 July 2007 ) | |||||||