Roddick Gets Roughed Up in Rome; Murray, Sharapova Tuesday; Del Potro Tear
Today offered more proof that Andy Roddick just isn’t getting any younger. The former World No. 1 and No. 12 seed was easily dispatched on the red clay of Rome by Gilles Simon 63, 63.
The loss is Roddick’s fourth straight dating back to a fourth round defeat to Richard Gasquet at Indian Wells. Since, Roddick’s suffered opening round losses to Pablo Cuevas (Miami), Flavio Cipolla (Madrid) and now Simon.
“He moves very well, which you don’t want to see when you are short of matches like I was today, when you are not getting clean hits,” said Roddick said of Simon. “We soon got into rallies and it became a battle striking the ball in movement, I was coming second sometimes.”
Roddick’s European tour continues next week in Nice where maybe the American can scrape a win before the French Open begins in two weeks.
Roddick’s countryman and doubles partner Mardy Fish did score a win defeating Santiago Giraldo 46, 62, 62.
Roddick wasn’t the only big name to fall on the second day at the Foro Italico. In a mild upset, Nikolay Davydenko was sent packing by Viktor Troicki 64, 75 and Italian Potito Starache ended the hopes of the struggling Alexandr Dolgopolov 63, 63.
After the starting the year in positive form, Dolgopolov has cooled off considerably. The Ukraine is on a 5-match losing skid, dropping 10 straight sets since a win over Tsonga in Miami.
In the match of the day featuring former Australian Open finalsits, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga beat Marcos Baghdatis 63, 62. Tsonga will now meet Roger Federer on Wednesday.
Tomorrow, Andy Murray, Maria Sharapova and a good match between Robin Soderling and Fernando Verdasco are scheduled.
Top seeds Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic will play Wednesday.
One player not in the field this week is Juan Martin Del Potro who announced today that he has a small tear in his hip. The Argentine says he is still hoping to recover in time before the French Open in two weeks.
ORDER OF PLAY – TUESDAY, 10 MAY, 2011
CENTRALE start 12:00 noon
[WC] S Bolelli (ITA) vs [9] N Almagro (ESP) – ATP
[Q] C Mchale (USA) vs [2] F Schiavone (ITA) – WTA
[14] S Wawrinka (SUI) vs [WC] F Fognini (ITA) – ATP
Not Before 7:30 PM
E Makarova (RUS) vs [7] M Sharapova (RUS) – WTA
Not Before 9:15 PM
X Malisse (BEL) vs [4] A Murray (GBR) – ATP
PIETRANGELI start 12:00 noon
[Q] I Andreev (RUS) vs [16] R Gasquet (FRA) – ATP
I Ljubicic (CRO) vs [WC] F Cipolla (ITA) – ATP
M Kirilenko (RUS) vs [12] A Petkovic (GER) – WTA
Not Before 7:30 PM
[5] R Soderling (SWE) vs F Verdasco (ESP) – ATP
[15] F Pennetta (ITA) vs B Mattek-Sands (USA) – WTA
COURT 10 start 11:00am
[WC] A Brianti (ITA) vs [LL] J Zheng (CHN) – WTA
S Errani (ITA) vs R Vinci (ITA) – WTA
J Monaco (ARG) vs [7] T Berdych (CZE) – ATP
[Q] P Lorenzi (ITA) vs T Bellucci (BRA) – ATP
COURT 1 start 11:00am
K Date-Krumm (JPN) vs L Safarova (CZE) – WTA
[14] K Kanepi (EST) vs [WC] R Oprandi (ITA) – WTA
[Q] C Scheepers (RSA) vs [16] A Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) – WTA
[10] S Peer (ISR) vs B Jovanovski (SRB) – WTA
COURT 2 start 11:00am
M Cilic (CRO) vs I Karlovic (CRO) – ATP
J Chela (ARG) vs J Isner (USA) – ATP
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