Roddick Edges Baby Goran at ATP Queen's

Posted on June 11, 2004

World No. 2 Andy Roddick fought back a three-set challenge from Croatian Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic 7-6(3), 4-6, 6-4 Thursday at the ATP stop at Queen's to move into the round of 16 in an effort to defend his title from 2003.

"He didn't give me any looks at his serve today," Roddick said. "He was hitting all his spots -- first and second serve, but I was pretty pleased with the way I was playing as well. I felt I had a couple of chances that I didn't take full advantage of, but it's not like they were sitters. That kind of match you just have to stay the course and wait for an opening."

Roddick beat Greg Rusedski, Taylor Dent, Andre Agassi, and Sebastien Grosjean en route to the title in 2003.

Brit wildcard Ian Flanagan was brought back to Earth by (5)Grosjean, taking a 6-2, 6-0 beating after previously upending former Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussi and Victor Hanescu, who in the previous round had beaten former Wimbledon winner Goran Ivanisevic.

Other seeded winners on the day were (6)Lleyton Hewitt (d. (Q)Murray in two tiebreaks, with the Brit holding six set points in the first and one in the second), (7)Paradorn Srichaphan (d. Dupuis), and (15)Radek Stepanek (d. Coria-killer Lu). Un-seeds into the fourth round were Korea's Hyung-Taik Lee (d. (8)Schalken in three), Henman-killer Karol Beck (d. (14)"Dr." Ivo Karlovic), and Agassi-killer Igor Andreev (d. Olivier "All We Need is Just a Little" Patience).

The quarterfinals at Queen's line up as Andreev vs. (6)Hewitt, (1)Roddick vs. (7)Srichaphan, (5)Grosjean vs. (15)Stepanek, and (Q)Lee vs. Beck.

The quarterfinals were rounded out at Halle Thursday with both seeds advancing in (2)Rainer Schuettler (d. J.Johansson) and (6)Mardy Fish (d. Sargsian), and two un-seeds in Spain's Fernando Verdasco (d. (Q)Seppi), and former Halle winner Nicolas Kiefer (d. Bjorkman in three).

On court today in the quarterfinals at Halle are (6)Fish vs. Verdasco, Kiefer vs. (2)Schuettler, (3)Novak vs. (WC)Haas, and (1)Federer vs. Clement.

WTA REVIEW/PREVIEW
Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn provided the only upset at Birmingham Thursday, upending (4)Maggie Maleeva in three after dropping the first set.

Seeds easing into the fourth round without dropping a set were (2)Patty Schnyder (d. (16)Sanchez Lorenzo), (3)Maria "Grunt-o-rama" Sharapova (d. Stosur), (8)Alicia Molik (d. Jankovic), and (9)Emilie Loit (d. Morigami). Un-seeds moving on were Japan's Saori Obata (d. Perry), French teen Tatiana Golovin (d. Asagoe), and Anne "Cosmo" Kremer (d. (Q)Vinci 7-6 in the third).

The Birmingham QF line up as Golovin vs. Kremer, Molik vs. Sharapova, Tanasugarn vs. Loit, and Obata vs. Schnyder.

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