Roddick Ushered Out in 2nd Round at French Open

Posted on May 27, 2005

Former No. 1 Andy Roddick made his annual early-round exit at Roland Garros Thursday, running out of mainly mental gas in blowing a 2-0 set lead against Argentine Jose Acasuso by the final score of 3-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 8-6.

Roddick upped the ante on his normally shaky net forays, coming in at some of the most inopportune times only to see Acasuso rip a passing shot.

"Early on I was doing a near-perfect job of finding times to come in," said Roddick, who was also out-aced 20 to 13 by the "B"-level Argentine. "But to his credit, he hit a couple off of his shoelaces late in the (final) set. I definitely still wanted to force the issue a little bit. But it's tougher out here."

Both players received treatment from trainers in the fifth set for cramps. For the second consecutive year no American man advanced past the second round at Roland Garros.

"Right now it stings," Roddick said. "I don't think any of us are happy. We all have a lot of pride. It's gotten taken down a lot in the last couple years here."

Seeded winners Thursday were (3) Marat Safin (d. Dlouhy from a set down), (8) Guillermo Coria (d. Djokovic who retired in the third with breathing problems), (9) Guillermo Canas (d. Montanes), (12) Nikolay Davydenko (d. O.Rochus from a set down), (15) Tommy Robredo (d. D.Norman), (21) Tommy Haas (d. Spadea, who retired after two sets with an ab injury), (27) Filippo Volandri (d. Saretta), (28) Nicolas Kiefer (d. Clement in five), and (32) Juan Carlos Ferrero (d. Hernych).

"He was playing very high balls," said Coria on the qualifier Djokovic who retired with breathing difficulties. "I was a little bit surprised at his speed at the beginning of the match. It's very difficult to play someone you don't know very well. Of course, I knew it was going to be difficult for him to hold out like that for five sets."

Two more upset-minded players on the day were Spain's David Sanchez (d. (19) T.Johansson in five) and Austrian Jurgen Melzer (d. (29) Youzhny).

Winners in all-unseeded play were qualifier Stanislas Wawrinka (d. Blake who blew a 2-0 sets lead), Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu (d. Guccione), Argentina's Mariano Puerta (d. Vliegen), and Russian Igor Andreev (d. Nieminen in four).

Blake led two sets to love before melting down in the almost-90-degree heat.

"I'm feeling a lot more comfortable here," Blake said. "That's a good thing. It's just a matter of making sure my body holds up. Fifteen matches in three weeks on two continents, going from indoors to outdoors to here, and being three out of five in a Grand Slam, it's a lot to do. That could have played into the fact that my legs were gone."

On court Friday on the men's side are (1) Federer vs. (25) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez, (4) Rafael "The Prodigy" Nadal vs. (30) Gasquet, (23) Grosjean vs. (16) Stepanek, (10) Nalbandian vs. (18) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, (14) Moya vs. Vicente in an all-Spanish, (5) Gaudio vs. Mantilla, (20) Ferrer vs. H.-T. Lee, and in the only all-unseeded, Hanescu vs. Luis "Me So" Horna.

"It's obviously going to be a very complicated match," Nadal said on facing Gasquet. "Clearly he's in top shape, and it's going to be his fans out there. It can be positive or negative. It's also pressure, and you've got to overcome that pressure when you're playing in front of your own public."