Roddick, Hewitt Win Debut Matches at Australian Open

Posted on January 18, 2005

In a first look at the 'Men Who Would Beat Federer,' top challengers Andy Roddick, at No. 2 on the ATP Rankings, and No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt emerged from their opening matches unscathed Tuesday at the Australian Open.

Roddick, with one of his few opportunities Tuesday to face a backhand weaker than his, threw water on the explosive game of Irakli "Freak Show" Labadze 7-5, 6-2, 6-1, while Hewitt subdued French veteran Arnaud Clement 6-3, 6-4, 6-1. It was the third consecutive event that Hewitt has faced Clement in 2005 after a three-set win for the Australian in Adelaide, and a straight-set victory last week en route to the Sydney title.

Roddick in his opener struggled to find the weak wing of Labadze, and found himself on the losing end of a multitude of forehand winners.

"Obviously, you know, it wasn't great tennis in the first set," said Roddick, who watched in amazement as the Freak Show double-fault three consecutive times to begin his first service game, but still held serve. "The last couple sets, I felt like I started hitting the ball a little bit better. You'd rather have momentum going that way than backwards."

Other seeded winners were (6) Guillermo Coria (d. Tomas "I'm Still the Last Player to Beat Federer" Berdych, bagel in the third), (7) Tim Henman (d. Saulnier in four), (9) David Nalbandian (d. Ferrer, coming back from 1-2 sets down), (12) Guillermo Canas (d. Aussie Chris "Penthouse" Guccione), (14) Sebastien Grosjean (d. countryman Llodra), (15) Mikhail Youzhny (d. Haehnel), (17) Andrei Pavel (d. Olivier "Mucus" Mutis, bagel in the third), (18) Nicolas "The Golden Child" Massu (d. Dupuis in four), (23) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez (d. Acasuso, coming from 0-2 sets down), (25) Juan Ignacio Chela (d. Arthurs), (26) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Karanusic), (31) Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Van Gemerden after dropping the first set), and (32) Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer (d. "Everybody Loves" Raemon Sluiter, who retired in the first set with injury).

"I knew that the match is the best of five sets, you know, so I can lose the first and the second and also I can have chances to win the match," said Ferrero, who dropped the first set to the unknown Van Gemerden, as was apparently ready to go five. "So of course I was a little bit disappointed to lose the first set, but later I was fighting all the time until I win the match."

No. 19 Vince Spadea was the only seeded upset on the day, blowing 2-1 set lead against Radek Stepanek.

Un-seeds into the second round Tuesday were Czech Jan Hernych (d. Mantilla, bagel in the fourth), Spaniards Fernando "Hot Sauce" Verdasco (d. Muller), Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal (d. Julien "United Colors of" Benneteau, bagel in the first) and Santiago Ventura (d. countryman Calatrava in five), Americans James Blake (d. Florian "Oscar" Mayer, bagel in the third) and Bobby Reynolds "Wrap" (d. Almagro in four), German Philipp Kohlschreiber (d. Carlsen), Aussie hope Nathan Healey (d. Flavio "Of the Day" Saretta, who retired in the fourth with injury), Frenchmen Jean-Rene Lisnard (d. Marach, coming from 0-2 sets down) and Gregory Carraz (d. Mathieu in four), Belgian Christophe "The Roach" Rochus (d. Montanes), No. 2-Brit hope "Grinning" Greg Rusedski (d. Bjorkman in four, setting up a showdown with Roddick), Russian Igor Andreev (d. Burgsmuller), Argentine Mariano Zabaleta (d. Kimmich in four), Brazil's Ricardo Mello "Yello" (d. A.Martin), and Romanian Victor Hanescu (d. Volandri).

"I felt like I was striking the ball well even though I lost the first set," Rusedski said. "I just didn't feel like I was going after my second serve enough and he was really punishing me for not doing that. I felt I was making a lot of returns, and I just upped my level and played a really good second and third set."

Grinning Greg says bring on Roddick, who he has beaten only once in four encounters.

"I very much look forward to it," Rusedski says. "I think mentally I'm stronger now than I've been ever been. I think today's match kind of proved it with the tiebreaker and just coming back and just staying at one keel all the way through. I'll be looking forward to it."
Wednesday's schedule on the men's side is (16) Haas vs. Beck, Rainer "Shine" Schuettler vs. (8) Agassi in a re-match of the 2003 Aussie Open final (Agassi leads career series 3-1), (1) Federer vs. Suzuki (first meeting), Nieminen vs. (27) Paradorn "The Thai Fighter" Srichaphan, (4) Safin vs. Ulihrach, (10) Gaudio vs. Fish (American leads 1-0), (29) Dent vs. Tabara, (11) Joachim "The Jackhammer" Johansson vs. Peter "Captain, the Wadar Shows Two Enemy" Wessels, Zib vs. (13) Robredo, Phau vs. Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, Olivier The Roach" Rochus vs. Gael "Force" Monfils, Sargis "Sarge" Sargsian vs. (24) Feliciano "F-Lo" Lopez, K.Kim vs. Guillermo "G-Lo" Garcia-Lopez, Tipsarevic vs. (20) Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty, (30) Thomas "Tommy the J." Johansson vs. Calleri, and (22) Ljubicic vs. Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis.