Murray raises the roof with historic win under lights (Wimbledon Diary)

June 30th, 2009 - 8:56 pm ICT by IANS  

Andy Roddick London, June 30 (DPA) After managing to raise the roof at Wimbledon with his five-set thriller win over Swiss Stan Wawrinka, Andy Murray had a late lie-in Tuesday before starting his quest to prepare for a quarter-final date with veteran Juan Carlos Ferrero.
“I’ll sleep late, I’ll practise around 2 p.m.,” said the Scot after his adventure which marked the latest Wimbledon match finish ever at 22:40 p.m. London time, thanks to the newly installed lights under the moveable translucent roof.

“I’ll go have an ice bath, massage, see the physio for an hour and a half and make sure I eat three or four very big meals, get as much food in me as possible, and that should be enough.”

Murray thrilled his 15,000 strong public with the win in four hours; he and Wawrinka are frequent practice partners.

“It took a while to get used to,” Murray said of the unfamiliar sensation on playing on indoor grass at night. “I played some great stuff and Stan played some great tennis as well.

“I felt it was harder to serve. I didn’t think that the ball was coming off the strings that quickly on the serve because of the humidity and it slowed the ball down.”

“Now I know how I’ll have to change my game if I do play under the roof, and I’ll know the way that the court plays. In my opinion, there’s quite a big difference.”

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Hewitt counting on help from his friends the Fanatics

Lleyton Hewitt’s secret weapon, the Aussie cheering group the Fanatics, have already joined the Wimbledon queue to make sure they are in the stands supporting their man for the Wimbledon quarter-finals against Andy Roddick.

Hewitt has contact with a few of the impromptu group’s key organizers, but the days of getting free tickets all around are long gone.

“Obviously a lot of them are expats living in London that have sort of joined in with a couple of the regulars,” Hewitt explained.

The guys - and some girls - are a regular feature of Australian Davis Cup matches around the globe and come out in force at the Grand Slams with their coordinated cheers, painted faces and green-and-gold shirts.

“They’ve been great, they’ve been fantastic,” said the one-time No.1. “I draw a lot of emotion and energy from those guys out there.”

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