Roddick Pounds Philippoussis to Advance at ATP Queens

Posted on June 9, 2005

No. 2 seed Andy Roddick looked back at home on the lawns of the Queen's Club Wednesday, with the two-time defending Stella Artois champion dismissing former Wimbledon finalist Mark Philippoussis 6-2, 6-4 to advance to the third round.

"Mark's a very accomplished grasscourt player and I wasn't super comfortable with the draw but I felt I played as well as I could," Roddick said of defeating the wildcarded No. 189-ranked Flipper. "I felt like I lifted my percentages a lot in the second set and was putting a lot of first serves in. That put the onus on him to try and figure something out."

Roddick broke Philippoussis twice in a row in the first set, and in the second did not drop a single point on serve in a display that left the Australian scratching his head over the American's Babolat-powered delivery.

"It's the first time I've played Andy so it was just tough getting used to his serve," said Philippoussis, who looked rusty coming off a rib and back injury. "He's got a very quick service action -- throws it up, just lunges right into it. So getting used to that, it was tough."
FOLDHERE

Another Andy took center stage Wednesday to the delight of British fans when wildcard Andrew Murray upset No. 9-seeded American Taylor Dent 6-3, 6-3.

"I don't understand why people would get nervous playing in front of your home crowd," said the Scot Murray of the Brit support. "I play tennis to play in front of crowds like that, and anybody who doesn't, shouldn't really be playing. If you want to be one of the best, you're going to have to play in some big arenas."

Other seeded players into the third round were (5) Mario Ancic (d. Hernych), (6) Thomas Johansson (d. Muller from a set down), (10) Richard Gasquet (d. (WC) Delgado), (14) Greg Rusedski (d. Tursunov in three), (15) Max Mirnyi (d. Sanguinetti), and (16) Karol Beck (d. Mathieu 7-6 in the third).

Also with the upsets were Croat Ivo Karlovic (d. (8) Gonzalez) and Aussie qualifier Chris Guccione (d. (13) Andreev).

Czech Tomas Zib (d. K.Kim from a set down) and American wildcard James Blake (d. Hanescu) advanced in the two lone all-unseeded meetings.

On tap for Thursday are (2) Roddick vs. (16) Beck, (WC) Murray vs. (6) T.Johansson, (3) Henman vs. (Q) Chris "Penthouse" Guccione, (1) Hewitt vs. (15) Max "The Beast" Mirnyi in a meeting of former slam-winning doubles partners, (5) Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic vs. (10) Gasquet, (14) "Grinning" Greg Rusedski vs. (4) Stepanek, (7) Grosjean vs. (WC) Blake, and Zib vs. "Dr." Ivo Karlovic.