Roddick Endures Mental Meltdown in Indian Wells Exit

Posted on March 16, 2006

Andy Roddick's 2006 mishaps continued Wednesday at the Masters Series-Indian Wells where the No. 3-seeded American suffered an uncharacteristic third-set racquet-smashing mental meltdown in a 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1 loss to unheralded Russian Igor Andreev in the fourth round.

"I went on walkabout," Roddick told reporters after failing to convert on three straight break points on Andreev's first service game in the third set, then losing his serve at love. "It was just like a blur. You're out there for two hours, and I let it get away from me in five minutes."

The loss follows a defeat in his last event to qualifier Julien Benneteau in Memphis, and continues a difficult start with brother John as his coach after firing his former coach Dean Goldfine.

"I'm not going to sit here and put on my fun face," said Roddick, who was penalized for smashing his racquet in the third set. "I'm not happy. I'm mad with the way I played. It's just frustration. We've all been there, except I have people watching when I break something."

In the third set Andreev hit 11 winners to none for the American. It was another mental setback for Roddick, who earlier this week looked like he might be getting a handle on his expanding repertoire of on-court emotional histrionics displayed in 2006.

"For the most part I was fine today until I went mental at the end," said Roddick, who saw the finish line, and that it would be his opponent crossing it, in the sixth game of the third set. "That's 5-1, so it's not really going to matter. I could have reached Gandhi-like peace of mind and it wouldn't have mattered then, 5-1 down."

Other fourth-round upsets Wednesday were Paradorn Srichaphan ousting No. 4 David Nalbandian from a set down 6-2 in the third, and No. 25 Marcos Baghdatis beating No. 23 Tomas Berdych 4-and-1.

Seeded winners on the day were (1) Roger Federer (d. (16) Gasquet), (2) Rafael Nadal (d. (20) Grosjean), (6) Ivan Ljubicic (d. Croat compatriot (21) Ancic), (12) James Blake (d. (26) Haas who retired in the 2nd set with stomach illness), and (22) Jarko Nieminen (d. Safin), all in straight sets.

Thursday features two singles quarterfinals in (1) Federer vs. (6) Ljubicic (Fed leads meetings 8-3, including 5 straight) and (22) Nieminen vs. Srichaphan (Finn leads 3-1 including 3 straight), and doubles match-ups (1) Bryan/Bryan vs. Frenchmen Gasquet/Grosjean, (6) Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro/Zimonjic vs. (2) Bjorkman/Max "The Beast" Mirnyi, Russians Andreev/Davydenko vs. (3) Knowles/Nestor, and Aspelin/Perry vs. Austrians Knowle/Melzer.