Roddick and Fish Rolling in Indian Wells — in Doubles?
Andy Roddick’s and Mardy Fish’s singles resumes speak for themselves, but the Americans paired as doubles stars?
ADHEREL
On Monday the American pairing advanced to the doubles quarterfinals at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, defeating the very solid team of Czech Radek Stepanek and France’s Michael Llodra 6-4, 7-6(6). Stepanek-Llodra had previously ousted the No. 7-seeded team of South Africans Coetzee-Moodie in their opener.
Roddick and Fish teamed once each in the years 2008, 2007 and 2005, failing to get past the quarterfinals, and in 2004 lost in the opening round at the Athens Olympics. In 2002 they won the U.S. Clay Courts title at Houston.
In their opening round, Roddick-Fish beat the French squad of Chardy-Simon. Next up: the imposing Argentine squad of David Nalbandian and Juan Martin del Potro, a surprising partnership after their lockeroom blowout last year in the Davis Cup final.
“This tournament, for those top guys, is a no-brainer to play some doubles to get outside on the hardcourts, when most of the guys haven’t played apart from Dubai, haven’t played outdoors on hardcourts,” said Fish on many of the top players competing in the doubles at Indian Wells. “So I think there’s only a few guys that aren’t. You know, James [Blake] is one, and [Novak] Djokovic, I think, is the other in maybe the Top 20. So a lot of guys tend to play doubles here.”
The top-seeded Bryan brothers face a Spanish challenge in their second-round match-up, meeting world No. 1 Rafael Nadal and countryman Marc Lopez.
You Might Like:
Andy Roddick Says “Ask The Boss Lady” Serena About Playing Olympic Mixed Doubles
Indian Wells Masters TV Schedule, Live Streaming
No Joke, a Fish Swallows Federer Whole in Indian Wells Desert
Mardy Fish Is Set For A Return At Indian Wells
Andy Roddick: For The First Time In A While There’s Some Excitement About The Future Of American Tennis