Roddick Beats Safin with Connors at Side in Oz

Early in his career Andy Roddick was known as the Tiebreak King, between his crunching serve and go-for-broke forehand sweeping through tiebreaks en route to the No. 1 ranking. Then came Roger Federer.

As Roddick went through a number of coaches and tinkered with his game in an effort to reach Federer's level, his confidence suffered, as did his record in tiebreaks. Now at the 2007 Australian Open the Roddick of old has returned, with the free-swinging American winning two clutch tiebreaks Friday against another former No. 1, Marat Safin, to advance 7-6(2), 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(2) into the fourth round.

"I knew I had to play well and I definitely lifted my game in the last two sets," said Roddick, who again had coach Jimmy Connors in the stands Friday after Connors returned from the U.S. after the death of his mother. "It is nice to get through a tough one like this."

It was a different Roddick than the volatile American that barely navigated past Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the opening round when Connors was absent.


"It's just a lot more consistent when he's at a tournament," Roddick said of Connors. "There's a third dimension to his energy. It's probably a lot better in person than it is on the phone."

This time it was Roddick who was in control, perhaps acting the good lad with his coach back in town as Safin exploded at everyone around him, even refusing to take the court again after a brief rain delay. On top of his game, Roddick hung with the Russian in numerous backhand-to-backhand rallies, and volleyed well overall in crashing the net to end points, a tactic he and Connors have been perfecting.

Next Roddick will face another big server in No. 9 seed Mario "Baby Goran" Ancic, who easily dismissed Dominik Hrbaty, dropping only six games en route.

World No. 1 Roger Federer was another straight-set winner over No. 25 seed Mikhail Youzhny, and rounding out the Top 10-seeded action was No. 7 Tommy Robredo, who wore down American riser Sam Querrey 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-2, 6-1.

Federer will next face No. 14 seed Novak Djokovic, who disposed of Thai Danai Udomchoke 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-1.

"If I go with the white flag on the court, what I'm doing here?" said the 19-year-old Djokovic when asked if he could compete with the world No. 1. "I'm aware that Roger is the best in the world. I have nine wins in a row now, but that doesn't mean if I play Federer that I'm going to stop here, that...I'm already giving up. I will do everything to win."

Other winners were No. 16 seed David Ferrer coming back to outlast No. 20 seed and Martina Hingis' betrothed Radek Stepanek from two sets down, No. 18 Richard "Baby Fed" Gasquet topping French countryman Gael "Force" Monfils in four with a bagel in the first set, and American Mardy Fish advancing when Aussie opponent Wayne Arthurs retired trailing 0-3 in the first set.

The 35-year-old Arthurs was forced to disappoint Aussie fans after only three games after having a numbing reaction to a local anaesthetic, a pain-killing injection for a hip problem.

"I had a pre-existing injury with my hip and it was getting sorer and sorer over the last probably three days where I injured it during my second-round match. It got worse yesterday during the doubles," an emotional Arthurs said in his post-match conference. "It was an idea to have a local anaesthetic in my hip this morning. It was like a practice run for the local anaesthetic, to see how I would react to it. I'd gone in, had the anaesthetic and felt great during practice. Everything was fine. The hip was good. That was a short-term acting anaesthetic which wore off within the hour type of thing. I went to have another one, which was a pre-plan, as well, which was going to be a longer-lasting, three-to-four hour type of anaesthetic. I had that probably 15 minutes before the match, which was all right on cue. I went on the court. I had a reaction to the anaesthetic and had no co-ordination, no feelings in my right leg at all. I was just completely gone on the right side. As you could see, I couldn't co-ordinate at all on the right side...I don't blame the doctor, no. I've been told it's a one-in-a-thousand thing...I couldn't really believe that this is the way that my last Aussie Open was going to finish."

Scheduled for Saturday in Melbourne are (2) Nadal vs. (31) Wawrinka, (10) Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez vs. (19) Hewitt, (8) Nalbandian vs. (28) Grosjean, (3) Davydenko vs. Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro, (5) Blake vs. Ginepri in an all-American, (12) Haas vs. Mayer in an all-German, and (15) Murray vs. Chela.