Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Roddick moves into third round

Wimbledon Championships
Venue: All England Club, London Date: 21 June - 4 July
Coverage:
Live on BBC One and Two, HD, Red Button, BBC Sport website (UK only), Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra; live text commentary online and on mobile phones; watch again on BBC iPlayer Full details of BBC coverage

Remarkable Roddick recovery sparks comeback

Andy Roddick came from a set down against Michael Llodra to book his place in the third round at Wimbledon.

The fifth seed looked in trouble as his serve deserted him in the opening set, but he turned it around to beat the Frenchman 4-6 6-4 6-1 7-6 (7-2).

Lleyton Hewitt, champion here in 2002, joined Roddick in round three after opponent Evgeny Korolev of Kazakhstan was forced to retire hurt.

The Australian, seeded 15, was leading 6-4 6-4 3-0 at the time.

Hewitt, fresh from his shock victory over Roger Federer in the final of the Halle tournament, looked hungry throughout and could be a lively outsider at Wimbledon.

By contrast, Korolev, the cousin of Anna Kournikova, has never been beyond the third round at a Grand Slam and never looked likely to cause an upset, even before he was forced out with an upper arm problem.

After the match, Hewitt, who will play Gael Monfils next, said: "I went out with a good game plan and served extremely well. It's all going well and it's nice to be through to the third round."

The Australian added: "I love this place. It is my favourite tournament of the year. Winning at Halle gave me a lot of confidence I can play well on this surface but it's going to get tougher from here."

The turning point for Roddick came in the first game of the second set when Llodra squandered two break points to hand his opponent a lifeline. The American seized the initiative, sealing victory with the aid of a tie-break.

Roddick, last year's beaten finalist, hit 25 aces to take control of the match after the opening set saw his first serve percentage at just 33 compared to Llodra's 92.

Afterwards, he admitted he was relieved to get through against a "very dangerous opponent", winner of the Eastbourne International on Saturday.

He said: "Llodra played well at Queen's and won a title last week - and he played pretty flawless tennis for the best part of two sets.

"But I hung in there and played a really good breaker in the fourth set. Centre Court is a special place, the pinnacle of our sport, so it's always fun (to play there)."

Austria's Jurgen Melzer battled into round three after losing the first two sets to Viktor Troicki of Serbia. Melzer, the 16th seed, dug deep into his reserves before finally prevailing 6-7 (5-7) 4-6 6-3 7-6 (8-6) 6-3.

Queen's winner Mardy Fish bowed out of the tournament, losing 6-7 (2-7) 6-3 6-4 6-4 to Germany's Florian Mayer, while Feliciano Lopez, seeded 22, needed four sets to get past Ricardas Berankis of Lithuania, eventually triumphing 7-5 4-6 6-3 6-4.

viagra ireland | online pharmacy without prescription

No comments: