Roddick Eats Up Waffle in Opener at ATP San Jose

Posted on February 13, 2004

Top seed Andy Roddick made it a good start in his opening match at San Jose Wednesday, rolling over Belgian Christophe Rochus 6-4, 6-2 in a serving exhibition that recorded NASCAR-like speeds.

"He doesn't let you breathe," said Rochus, fending off serves consistently in the 130-140 mph range. "I never had the feeling I was controlling the ball. There's so much intensity in his game. Everything goes so fast."

Roddick struggled a bit on the second serve, but in the fifth game of the second set smacked a 143-mph ace, a 136-mph service winner, a 137-mph ace and a 136-mph ace. Roddick threw down 16 aces overall in the contest.

In other seeded action, No. 4 Taylor Dent was surprised by the consistent passing game of 24-year-old wildcarded countryman Robert Kendrick in a straight-set loss. No. 3 Mardy Fish struggled to a 7-6 in the third win over Kenneth Carlsen, while James Blake had an easy straight-set romp over American qualifier Zack Fleishman. Other un-seeds into the third round Wednesday were Jan-Mike Gambill (d. Hippensteel), Korea's big-serving Hyung-Taik Lee (d. Malisse), and Sweden's Joachim "I Date Lleyton's Sister" Johansson (d. Kiefer in three).

On Thursday's San Jose schedule are (6)Spadea vs. H.-T. Lee, the crafty Frenchman Saulnier vs. (5)Ginepri, J.Johansson vs. (7)Blake, and in the night matches (2)Agassi vs. Moodie, and (1)Roddick vs. the waffle Vliegen.

The seeds took a hit Wednesday in Milan, where two were put on planes early in (4)Feliciano Lopez (l. to Dupuis) and (5)Ivan Ljubicic (l. to Beck, not the artist but the Slovak). Two other seeds punched through in defending champion (2)Martin "Berzerker" Verkerk (d. 2002 champion Sanguinetti) and (8)Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty (d. Andreev in three). "After Davis Cup in Holland, which was on clay, and then coming here on a fast surface meant it was a very tough match," said the Berzerker. "I'm here as the defending champion, so it was always going to be difficult playing against an Italian, especially one as good as Sanguinetti, here in Italy."

Un-seeds through on Wednesday were Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic), "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter (d. (LL)Bracciali), Karol "Little Cat" Kucera (d. Stepanek), Russian Davis Cup choker Mikhail Youzhny (d. (WC)Galimberti), and rolling Frenchman Nicolas Escude (d. (Q)Bohli).

On court today in Milan are Kucera vs. (7)Sargsian, Sluiter vs. T.Johansson (first meeting), Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. (6)The Prodigy (Nadal leads series 2-0), (3)Robredo vs. (WC)Ivanisevic in a tester of Goran's comeback (first meeting), (8)The Dominator vs. Youzhny, Escude vs. (2)Verkerk (first meeting), Beck vs. Carraz, and (Q)Heuberger vs. Dupuis.

All three seeds cruised in second round action Wednesday on the dirt at Vina del Mar in (2)Gustavo Kuerten (d. (Q)Squillari), (4)Gaston Gaudio (d. Acasuso), and (7)Filippo Volandri (d. "Julio &" Galo Blanco). One un-seed also moved into the quarters in Spanish defending champion David Sanchez (d. Miranda).

Thursday's remaining second round matches are Luis "Me So" Horna vs. Saretta, (WC)Garcia vs. (5)Gonzalez in an all-Chilean, (3)Zabaleta vs. Ramirez Hidalgo, and in the featured night match, (1)Massu vs. Levy. The South American early dirt swing is underway, and damn if it isn't boring.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Wildcard Stephanie Cohen-Aloro briefly gave the home crowd at the Paris-indoor something to cheer about Wednesday before going down in three sets to No. 2 seed Elena Dementieva in an otherwise give-me-a-refund day on court. One other seed in action advanced in No. 7 Silvia Farina Elia (d. Pisnik), while three no-seeds moved on in Mary Pierce in her 2004 debut after injury (d. Parra), Daniela "The Walking Stick" Hantuchova (d. Testud who retired with an ab strain), and Russia's Elena Bovina (d. (Q)Medina Garrigues in three).

On Thursday ticket-holders will get some meat in Sprem vs. Schiavone, Serna vs. Pierce, Schnyder vs. Safina, Clijsters vs. Sanchez Lorenzo, Golovin vs. Hantuchova, and Bovina vs. Dokic.

WTA TOP 10 CAREER WIN-LOSS PERCENTAGE
It could be argued that we are in the Golden Era of women's tennis, with seven active players in the all-time Top 10 Open Era winning percentages on the WTA Tour (through Feb. 8, 2004):

1. Chris Evert (USA) 1304-75 .901
2. Steffi Graf (GER) 900-199 .887
3. Martina Navratilova (USA) 1440-147 .871
4. Serena Williams (USA) 248-72 .841
5. Monica Seles (USA) 595-184 .830
6. Martina Hingis (SUI) 471-148 .825
7. Venus Williams (USA) 334-106 .821
8. Tracy Austin (USA) 335-37 .788
9. Kim Clijsters (BEL) 289-104 .787
10T. Lindsay Davenport (USA) 582-162 .782
10T. Justine Henin-Hardenne (BEL) 295-109 .782

ATP MILAN MULTIPLE TITLE WINNERS
4--Boris Becker (1994-93,'89,'87)
4--John McEnroe (1985,'81-79)
3--Ivan Lendl (1990,'86,'83)
2--Yevgeny Kafelnikov (1998,'95)
2--Goran Ivanisevic (1997-96)
2--Peter Fleming/John McEnroe (1980-79)
2--Pavel Slozil/Tomas Smid (1984-83)

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
While Goran Ivanisevic won his first match back from injury this week, Tommy Haas lost his, losing serve in the opening game and seventh game of the first set, both on double faults; he was then broken in the first and fifth game of the second set, double faulting five times (without an ace) and winning only 40 percent of second serve points against Vince Spadea. "Everything's still there," said the former No. 2. "I don't feel I'm much different, I still have every shot that I need. It's just a matter of time now putting everything together, playing the shot at the right time, the foot work needs to get much better, staying through the ball, all that smooth feeling. And the only way I'm going to get that is with time on the tour. Hopefully week by week, I can get improvement." Keep at it Tommy...Mardy Fish on ending his 0-2 streak on the season at San Jose after warming the U.S. bench for Davis Cup: "It's just good to get one under the belt and move on. My goal at this tournament is to take 'em one at a time. I'm not trying to sound too cliche about it, but that?s what I have to do. And I think I was looking too far ahead maybe in Australia in the first tournament and just didn't really play my game." Keep at it Fishy...Since 1993, no player has won the ATP Vina del Mar title twice, but Marcelo Rios has lost in the final four times. Keep at it little caveman...Serena joins Anna in this month's Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, on stands now...Daniela "The Walking Stick" Hantuchova pulled out of her second-round match at the Paris Open today with breathing problems...One to watch: 13-year-old Aussie Andrew Thomas, the best in the world in his age group currently.