DYLAN JONES ON THE CHOICE OF AN ANGEL I don't want to be too melodramatic about this, but in the last 18 months my iPod has become much more than a portable music carrier. It has not only become my constant companion, but it's something of an emotional crutch, too. I have squeezed a lifetime of music into my little white plastic music box, uploading some 5,000 songs, from Abba, The Beatles and The Clash right through to XTC, Yello and Frank Zappa. His cause has been helped by the appointment of Mark Petchey as his full-time coach.This tournament, for which Murray obtained a wild card, is the first of a series in the US for the new pair.
Greg Rusedski is also here, as defending champion in this grass-court event, his opponent from the qualifying rounds not yet decided.This will be Murray's first appearance since his third-round defeat at Wimbledon to David Nalbandian in a five-set match in which the teenager's fitness appeared to be lacking. But it will not be simply his fitness under scrutiny here: if Murray is to succeed, it will be in these less glamorous tournaments that he needs to perform convincingly. By Andrew Buncombe in Newport, Rhode Island Andy Murray, the precocious 18-year-old who now bears the official title of "Next Great British Hope", will today begin the next phase of his project to reach the world's top 10. After the buzz he created at Wimbledon it is fair to say the level of expectation is considerable. At the Campbell's Hall of Fame Tennis Championships in Newport, Murray has been drawn against France's Gregory Carraz. Roddick, two sets to love down, had to continue taking risks in an attempt to break Federer's concentration and, more importantly, his serve.Try though he did, Roddick again found that some of his best moves were merely a prelude to Federer's next display of magic. That came on Roddick's serve in the opening point of the seventh game, when Federer clipped an angled backhand and glided across the court to meet Roddick's backhand volley with a backhand pass down the line.When the applause died down, Federer also took the second point, leaving his opponent with little option but to try and play a shot through his legs, which achieved no reward but amused the spectators.Federer's backhand drive created two break points.
Afterwards he related his thoughts as he was serving for the treble: "I got nervous. I missed my first serve, then hit an ace on second serve because he took the wrong side I felt my arm shaking. After he came back to 30-15, I thought, 'Why now?' I was really nervous - I just hit [my serve] as hard as I could at 40-15.". Roddick served away the first but was passed on the second with yet another cross-court backhand as Federer made the decisive break. Federer then created two break points, making light of Roddick's backhand volley with a forehand pass down the line.