Federer, Roddick Advance at ATP Indian Wells

Posted on March 16, 2004

While Andy Roddick was the feature match Sunday in the U.S., the real story was world No. 1 Roger Federer pounding Andrei Pavel 6-1, 6-1, sending a message that the race for No. 1 in 2004 could be a one-man event.

"I feel much more confident when I walk on court," said Federer, who has beaten the unlucky Pavel four times already this year. "I know what I got to do now. Before I was always going on court with a little doubt. If today doesn't work, I cannot win probably. Now I feel even if I'm playing bad, I can win matches. That is for me a big improvement I've made."

Roddick beat Jan-Michael Gambill 7-6(3), 6-2, not a big feat with Jan-Mike's groundstroke game set on "spray," but Roddick impressed by hitting almost one ace for every other first serve in during the match, accumulating 21 total.

"Even throughout the first set, I felt like I was getting into his service games a lot more than he was getting into mine," Roddick said. "I think I had breakpoints in at least three of his service games in the first set. I felt like I was returning a little bit better."

Next up Roddick faces a fellow former No. 1 in Marat Safin. "Obviously, I don't think it's a great draw for me," Roddick said. "But at the same time, it's probably not a good draw for him either. But that's the way it goes. Throughout my career, I'm going to have some good draws, I'm going have some bad draws. That's why you hear the old saying, 'Luck of the draw.'" Thanks for the explaining that Andy.

Other seeded winners were (4)Guillermo "El Mago" Coria (d. Sargsian), (13)Sebastien Grosjean (d. Sanguinetti), (16)Jiri Novak (d. Dupuis), (18)Mardy Fish (d. (Q)Weiner), (21)Vince Spadea (d. Saretta), (22)Agustin Calleri (d. Soderling in three), (27)Max "The Beast" Mirnyi (d. Bogomolov), and (30)Marat Safin (d. (Q)Hernych).

Unseeded winners were Irakli Labadze (d. (7)Carlos Moya in three), Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. (11)Massu), Frenchman Nicolas Escude (d. (14)Schalken), and "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter (d. (24)Clement).

On tap for Monday are (32)Chela vs. (8)Hewitt (first meeting), (1)Federer vs. (25)Gonzalez (first meeting), (30)Safin vs. (3)Roddick (Safin leads 2-0), (31)Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty vs. (5)Agassi (Dominator leads 2-1), Dent vs. N.Lapentti (first meeting), (Q)Arthurs vs. (28)Bjorkman, Escude vs. (21)Spadea, Labadze vs. Arazi, (WC)Haas vs. (23)Costa, (WC)Corretja vs. (9)Henman, Sluiter vs. (13)Grosjean, Youzhny vs. Horna, (4)Coria vs. (27)Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, (22)Calleri vs. Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal, (18)Fish vs. (16)Novak, and getting no respect out on Court 8, Blake vs. Gaudio.

"It's a great match," says Safin on facing Roddick. "For me, it's really good, quite nice to play. But it's a little bit early maybe. You cannot beat him just playing the normal game, you have to find a way to beat him. Just go to the net, put pressure on his backhand and not let him play tennis, his game, because he's really good at that. You have to put pressure on him all the time."

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
No. 3 seed Lindsay Davenport led off the women's action on Sunday, putting a beating on Aussie qualifier Sam Stosur 6-0, 6-3 at Indian Wells.

"I feel like I've been working really hard," Davenport said. "I feel like I've been hitting the ball pretty well." Then Lindsay shouted "This press conference is over!" and stormed out. Which didn't really happen, but would have woken up a few nodding journalists.

Other winners on the abbreviated women's schedule Sunday included (6)Vera "Warren" Zvonareva (d. Schaul), (15)Fabiola "The Fabulous One" Zuluaga (d. Talaja), (20)Meghann Shaugnessy (d. Brandi), Gisela Dulko (d. (7)Petrova), Nathalie Dechy (d. (10)Smashnova-Pistolesi), and American Marissa Irvin (d. Leon Garcia).

Today on the women's side includes (1)Henin-Hardenne vs. (Q)Marrero, 14-year-old (WC)Karatancheva vs. (16)Maria "Grunt-o-meter" Sharapova, (4)Myskina vs. (31)Vento-Kabchi, (11)Martinez vs. (18)Raymond, (12)Kuznetsova vs. (22)Molik, Sucha vs. (33)Amy "Joltin' Joe" Frazier, (Q)Strycova vs. Benesova in an all-Czech affair, and Schett vs. (8)Suarez.

TENNIS ON TV TODAY (Times EST)
ESPN2 05:00P 07:00P LIVE RODDICK-SAFIN
ESPN2 10:00P 12:00A  LIVE  AGASSI-DENT

NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Andre Agassi turns 34 next month and carries the honor of being the oldest player to finish among the Top 5 since Jimmy Connors (35) was No. 4 in 1987: "I'm very proud that I'm still out here doing it," said Agassi at Indian Wells. "I think I'm stronger now than I've ever been and physically, I feel great. Of course there are some handicaps that go along with it, but there are some arsenal that come along with getting older. At the end of the day if you play a good match and I still feel I can win the match, I don't think about the age when I'm out there."...Patti Myers covers sports for The Desert Sun, but obviously not a lot of tennis. She writes: "No. 3 Andy Roddick, 21, said (Andre) Agassi is still getting it done on the court and believes the veteran is a major advantage for the United States' Davis Cup and Olympic teams. "I'm going to be a little biased because we still have Andre on our side," said Roddick. "Maybe if Andre wasn't still here, I might say one of the other countries (other than the U.S. would be the top team), but he's still holding it down for us." Too bad Agassi hasn't played Davis Cup in years, has said he is done playing Davis Cup, and has also said he won't be playing the upcoming Olympics. Time to go back to covering the LPGA...Andy Roddick when asked if he is trying to add finesse to his game: "I'm trying, boss. You got to play with the cards you're dealt, though. I'm a work in progress, for sure. I'm not complaining at all, I have a blast playing the way I do."...What was up with Jan-Mike's father, with the blonde bowl cut and troglodyte look? Was Jan-Mike adopted?...More from 14-year-old Bulgarian Bolletieri prodigy Sesil Karatancheva on tennis: "I thought this is the most ridiculous, boring unbelievable game anybody every made in this world, OK? Why am I wasting my time instead of going to the movies, playing with my friends? (But) you get everything you want. I was like, 'Yeah, why not?'" When I got to the age of 11, I was like, 'You know what, that's the thing I want to make my life with. That's the thing I'm going to (use to) prove I'm something in this world.'" More attention-junkie Lolitas from Europe, great.