Andy Roddick showed no ill-effects from a late start at Flushing Meadows or his crushing Wimbledon final loss to Roger Federer as he blasted his way into the US Open second round in the early hours of this morning.
Roddick, the fifth seed, who took the world No 1 to a 30th game in the fifth set on grass in an epic Wimbledon final in July, took considerably less time to shake off Germany’s Bjorn Phau as he powered to a 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 victory.
The match did not start until gone 11pm local time last night as the players were held up by Venus Williams’s long match against Vera Dushevina at the Arthur Ashe Stadium court and it finished at 12.45am but that did not bother Roddick, who served magnificently, with an 81 per cent first service rate of which 80 per cent were winning points.
“This feels real great,” Roddick said afterwards, “the later the better.”
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The American has not added further grand slam titles to his 2003 US Open victory but has said his Wimbledon experience this summer has proved to him he still has what it takes to win more, a view backed on US television by the now retired Andre Agassi.
“That means a lot to me coming from Andre,” Roddick said. “I’m just enjoying playing so much that I’m going to stick around for a while. I hope he’s right because I just love being out here and I feel good so far.”
Roddick was particularly pleased about his excellent service percentages. “That’s good because after Wimbledon I didn’t serve too great in the couple of tournaments that I played,” he said. “I was hitting the ball well but I just didn’t serve great. So that’s a welcome sign and hopefully I can keep it going.”
Williams came within three points of a straight-sets defeat before clawing her way back to edge out Russia’s Vera Dushevina 6-7, 7-5, 6-3.
The American was a set and 4-5 down when she dropped the first point while serving to stay in the match.
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But in a stunning turnaround she won the next four points and then took the next two games to force a deciding set that she eventually won to set up a second round encounter with fellow American Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
The seven-times grand slam tournament winner, seeded third behind sister Serena and Dinara Safina of Russia, got off to an edgy start by dropping her serve in the opening game. At 1-2 down, she needed extensive courtside treatment for an injury to her left knee.
Williams immediately got the break back, though, and after six breaks of serve in total, the first set went to a tie-break which Dushevina won by taking the final four points. The Russian went a break ahead to lead 3-1 in the second but Williams again pinned her back with a break of her own to level at 3-3. Games went with serve until 5-5 when Williams turned up the pressure on the 22-year-old Russian to break serve again and she then served out to level the set scores. That seemed to suck the confidence out of Dushevina and she was broken again to open the deciding set.
Williams pounced to move out into a 4-0 lead before Dushevina stopped the rot by holding her serve and then rubbed out one of the breaks thanks largely to two unforced errors from the American. It was Williams’s turn to look anxious as Dushevina got to 4-3, but her biggest weapon, her serve, helped her steady the ship in the next game and she sealed the win in the following game on her fifth match point.
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“She played so well, moved so well and did so many things so well but I had so much help from the fans here,” Williams said.
“I felt so much energy when I was serving to stay in the match in the second set. I am going to do my best to prepare for the next round. I’m tough.”