Roddick to Face Coria in ATP Masters Series-Miami Final

Posted on April 4, 2004

Vince Spadea's passive baseline game was no match for the Babolat-powered attack of Andy Roddick Friday night in the Masters Series-Miami semifinals, with the American Roddick rolling over his countryman 6-1, 6-3 in the breezy conditions.

Spadea looked to goad Roddick into mistakes by feeding medium-paced groundstrokes to his backhand, but Roddick was the aggressor, taking no chances against the man who beat him in three sets last month at Scottsdale.

"It was a good performance," Roddick said. "I was very happy with it. You know, I pretty much dominated from start to finish, which is what I wanted to do against Vince. I mean, he's very good when he gets his feet into a match, starts playing every point, starts not missing. I wanted to come out and maybe set the tone early and it worked for me today."

Typical was the final game of the match, where Spadea served at 40-love but watched the game slip away without an aggressive game plan.

"I was just apprehensive," Spadea said. "I'm from Florida, so I shouldn't talk about the wind so much. But the wind gives me sometimes a little bit of fear to hit through the ball, and Andy was playing like it was an indoor court, just blasting like nothing was going to stop his shots."

In the best-of-five Sunday final Roddick will face Guillermo "El Mago" Coria, who in a magician's act saved four match points against the free-swinging Fernando Gonzalez in a 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-1 win. Gonzalez was serving at 5-2 in the second set tiebreak, but a series of wayward forehands allowed the tenacious Argentine to hang on for the set, then wear down the burly Chilean in the third.

"When I was on court I never gave up," Coria said. "I continued to fight because the match is never over until you shake hands with your opponent. I went on court a little flat because Gonzalez doesn't give you any rhythm, but luckily I was able to react at the right time."

Roddick leads Coria 2-0 in their career head-to-head encounters.

In the doubles semifinals, Zimbabwe's (8)Black/Ullyett upset (1)Bryan/Bryan in straights (not a good look for the Americans going into Davis Cup), and (3)Bjorkman/Woodbridge outlasted (5)Knowles/Nestor in three sets.

Serena Faces Dementieva in Saturday Women's Final in Miami

Serena Williams will attempt to become the first woman since Steffi Graf in 1994-96 to win three consecutive Miami titles today at the Nasdaq-100 Open.

It is a remarkable feat for Serena, who is appearing in her first tournament in eight months after knee surgery. Her opponent in the final, Russian Elena Dementieva, will attempt to become only the fifth player to beat both Williams sisters in the same tournament after Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (1998 Sydney), Steffi Graf (1999 Sydney), Martina Hingis (2001 Australian Open), and Kim Clijsters (2002 Tour Championships).

WTA MIAMI FINALS WITH NO. 1 SEED
1985 (1)Martina Navratilova d. (2)Chris Evert
1986 (1)Chris Evert d. (2)Steffi Graf
1988 (1)Steffi Graf d. (2)Chris Evert
1989 (1)Gabriela Sabatini d. (2)Chris Evert
1993 (2)Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario d. (1)Steffi Graf
1994 (1)Steffi Graf d. (9)Natasha Zvereva
1996 (1)Steffi Graf d. (6)Chanda Rubin
1997 (1)Martina Hingis d. (4)Monica Seles
2000 (1)Martina Hingis d. (2)Lindsay Davenport
2002 (8)Serena Williams d. (1)Jennifer Capriati
2003 (1)Serena Williams d. (6)Jennifer Capriati
2004 (1)Serena Williams vs. (5)Elena Dementieva

Serena won her only previous meeting with Dementieva last year at Wimbledon in straight sets.

No. 2-seeded Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Likhovtseva gained the women's doubles final Friday in Miami with a 6-4, 6-4 win over No. 4-seeded Americans Lisa Raymond and Martina Navratilova.

In the final they will face either the No. 6-seeded Nadia Petrova/Meghann Shaughnessy (d. (1)Ruano Pascual/Suarez in three sets Friday), or the Chinese team of Ting Li/Tian Tian Sun, to be played Saturday.

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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Apparently Martina Navratilova has taken a singles wildcard for next week's Amelia Island tournament. Singles on clay? Could you have picked a worse surface for your game? Wait for the grass. Her last singles match in a U.S. tournament was the 1994 Virginia Slims Championship, which she lost to Gabriela Sabatini. Martina is a three-time champion in Amelia...Serena was thankful she didn't have to play her semifinal in Miami at night -- so she could watch TV: "I was really excited. I was nervous, I thought I was going to have to play tonight, but I didn't. I was going to watch 'The Apprentice,' that's my show. I'm a reality freak. And, you know, when I heard that I might be playing a night match, I was so nervous, just thinking to myself, 'Oh, my God. Do not play me at night. Do not play me at night.' Thank God I didn't...I was really into 'Top Model.' I started out with 'The Bachelor' a few years ago here. And ever since then, I don't know, I just like, 'You're fired!' I've watched it since the first episode. I was like, 'Oh, wow, this is a good show.' I'm really into all the reality shows." Why is that Serena? "I don't know, just, I guess, because it's like you can really see the reality of things, how it's going. I mean, a lot of stuff is cut out, and you really -- can't really see it all. But I just think it's fab. It's not good for us actresses and stuff, it's tough, but I figure we can enjoy it while we can." Us actresses, that's rich. That's the reality of Serena...Carlos Moya on his choke against Andy Roddick, serving at 5-3 in the third: "Sometimes you lose a match, a match like this, and you don't know what to think. I was controlling the match very well, and probably I got tight and that was it. That game, it was one of the worst games I ever played, I think. Double fault and three easy forehand. When you have these chances against Roddick and you don't make them, normally you lose. That's what happened today."...Doing the ATP communications manager's job for him, Andy Roddick jumped right in following his win over Carlos Moya, announcing himself in his own post-match press conference: "Andy improves to 24-6 on the year," Roddick told the assembled media. "He's into the semis of the NASDAQ-100 Open. Open for questions. Don't worry about it, I got it. Don't worry about it (laughter from the media). I'm like the Princeton offense. Let's go."...Serena Williams' victory in the Miami semifinals was her 17th in a row at the event dating to 2001...David Nalbandian will miss Argentina's Davis Cup clash next weekend with Belarus as he has not yet recovered from tendonitis in his ankle that forced him to miss the ATP Masters Series events in Indian Wells and Miami. He will likely be replaced in the singles line-up by either Guillermo Canas or Juan Ignacio Chela...Media from 31 countries are covering the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami...South Africa is looking to surprise Slovakia in their minor league zonal Davis Cup match-up next weekend: "The Slovakians have played on grass and they have played at altitude. What they have never done is played on a grass court at altitude," said South African Tournament Director Keith Brebnor. "It will be interesting to see how they handle it."...Poor Vincenzo in that semifinal against A-Rod, talk about having nothing to hurt an opponent, just hoping he misses, get a little aggro in that game son...Andy Roddick is appearing in his first Master Series-Miami final...Serena won the 2002 Miami title as the No. 8 seed, beating No. 3-ranked Martina Hingis in the quarters, No. 2-ranked sister Venus in the semis, and No. 1-ranked Jenny Capriati in the final...Miami finalist Elena Dementieva won all three of her career titles last year at Amelia Island, Bali and Shanghai...Steffi Graf has the most Miami titles with five, ahead of Venus' three (Serena will also have three with a win today)...Andy Roddick was happy with his volleying in the semifinals after throwing a number of "bricks" in the quarterfinals: "I was ecstatic after the -- you know, I almost built a building yesterday. So today was a lot better."