American Andy Roddick was shown the door last night in straight sets after a long rain delay pushed back matches into the early morning. Roddick, a Legg Mason champion in 2005 and 2007, as well a runner-up last year to Mr. Del Potro, looked lost in the first ten minutes of the match and never gained his composure, eventually succumbing to Gilles Simon, a French journeyman who showed decent results in 2008, shockingly outserved Roddick. Roddick's game is based around his heavy serving but finished the match with only 3 aces compared to 7 for Simon. Roddick had two chances to break Simon in the match and failed to capatilize on either one. This is just one of the many very disappointing results for Roddick this year. His loss to Lu in Wimbledon on grass, has seemed to carry over onto the hard courts and many are beginning to question his ATP ranking of 9th in the world. Simon took only 69 minutes to get Roddick off the court. Here is to hoping he lasts longer in front of the New York fans at the US Open.
In other American news...Mardy Fish, this summer's hottest player and leader in the US OPEN series lost in three sets to Marin Cilic of Croatia. That breaks Fish's win streak at 11. Fish is coming off winning the Atlanta tournament and Newport, Rhode Island. The 28 year old lost 30 pounds which is probably the result of better conditioning and is playing the best tennis in his career, despite this loss. To lose the weight he stopped eating pizza, burgers and fries. Giving up pizza? Try that when you get to New York for the US Open.
Tomas Berdych was pushed the distance for the 2nd time this week at Legg Mason taking out Kazahstani Andrei Golubev.
David Nalbandian of Argentina demolished Marco Chiundinelli 6-1 6-0 while Xavier Malisse continues his impressive run taking out American giant John Isner. Malisse is set to play Berdych on Friday. Verdasco and Tipseravic advanced as well.
The Bryan Brothers and Sam Querry made the most of their visit to this nation's capital. Despite 5 Americans being ousted (Roddick, Querrey, Fish, Sweeting, and Isner), President Obama showed up to the USTA clinic being held by Querrey and the Bryan Brothers. We would have liked to see Obama take a couple of swings, but he was dressed in a dapper suit despite the heat and humidity.
This Sunday a new champion will be crowned. The Real Winner? The ATP, as more and more tennis fans this weekend will be exposed to players they aren't familiar with. These players have unique styles that should entertain them and personalities that will keep the sport on the rise.
Written by:
