Andy Murray: I'm the underdog for Wimbledon Federer final

WIMBLEDON FINAL

• Venue: All England Club, London
• Date: 8 July.

Andy Murray believes he can confound the British public's expectations and beat six-time champion Roger Federer to win an historic Wimbledon final.

Victory for Murray on Sunday would end a 76-year wait for a British successor to Fred Perry as men's champion.
"I'm probably not expected to win the match, but it is one that, if I play well, I'm capable of winning," he said.
"His record here has been incredible, so the pressure will be less on me because of who he is."

Wimbledon 2012 match stats

Federer		Murray
22	Sets	22
195	Games	228
222	Winners	237
88	Unforced errors	103
59	Aces	74
8	Double faults	17
66%	Ave % 1st serves in	63%
80%	Ave % pts won on 1st serve	77%
61%	Ave % pts won on 2nd serve	67%

Murray beat France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in four sets on Friday to become the first British man since Henry "Bunny" Austin in 1938 to reach the Wimbledon final.

But the Scot's view is supported by the bookmakers' odds which make Federer favourite for their meeting after he outplayed world number one Novak Djokovic in the first semi-final earlier in the day.
Despite enjoying an 8-7 lead over Federer in their total previous meetings, the Swiss won in straight sets in the finals of the 2008 US Open and 2010 Australian Open in their only Grand Slam encounters.
Federer has lost only once in seven Wimbledon finals - in a superb five-set battle against Rafael Nadal in 2008 - and, like Murray, is in search of his own piece of history.
The 16-time Grand Slam champion is within one triumph of matching Pete Sampras' open-era record of seven Wimbledon men's singles titles, and will also return to the top of the rankings to surpass the American's record for total weeks at world number one - 286 weeks.
Murray believes some have been premature in writing off the 30-year-old Federer as a fading force in the game after the previous nine Grand Slams were claimed by the younger Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic.
"He's lost some close matches in the Slams the last few years, but he had match points against Novak at the US Open in the last two years in a row," said Murray.

Murray's previous Grand Slam finals

• Australian Open 2011: lost to Novak Djokovic 4-6 2-6 3-6
• Australian Open 2010: lost to Roger Federer 3-6 4-6 6-7 (11-13)
• US Open 2008: lost to Roger Federer 2-6 5-7 2-6

"I don't think, if you look at the way he played today, you can't say he's past it or because he's 30 he's playing worse tennis. I just think the players around have got better."

Ivan Lendl, who Murray employed as coach in January, lost in four Grand Slam finals as a player before clinching the French Open in 1984 and Murray says that he and the rest of his coaching team will be key in confounding predictions of a Federer win.
"I spoke to Ivan after the match. It was, 'Good job. You did really well. What time do you want to practise tomorrow?' That's it. There's no time for anything else," Murray added.
"I've learnt from kind of being around him, never get too high, never get too down, which maybe in the past I was. I needed to try and be a bit more stable on the court, not be so emotional.
"My coaches will watch Roger's matches this week and from when I played him before but I try not to watch before I play against him.
"I've learnt from those matches that I lost against him in the past. If you go too much into detail of things that happened in the past, it's not always beneficial, because in tennis every day is different."

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