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Rocket Roddick pushed to edge before beating Mirnyi
Madrid, Oct 16: Second seed Andy Roddick needed 21 aces and 60 winners Wednesday to get out of a jam in a match which started as a deceptively easy second-roundmatch at the 2.45-million-euro Masters series.
Madrid, Oct 16: Second seed Andy Roddick needed 21 aces and 60 winners Wednesday to get out of a jam in a match which started as a deceptively easy second-round
match at the 2.45-million-euro Masters series.
The US Open champion, playing his first ATP match since his grand slam victory more than a month ago, finally worked his way out of danger to defeat big-hitting max mirnyi 6-1, 6-7 (9/11), 7-5. It was a two-hour battle for the second seed, who swept through the opening set only to suddenly encounter resistance from the world number 24 which took another 90 minutes to ultimately control.
Roddick claimed his second career victory against Mirnyi after beating him in the semi-finals at the previous Masters in Cincinnati in August.
Roddick started off superbly in a 26-minute opening set which looked like setting the stage for a rout. Ten of those minutes were taken up by the opening game, in which Mirnyi saved four break points before finally falling to 0-1 when Roddick landed a winner in a corner.
After that, there was no stopping the American, who broke the Belarus player twice more. The torrid pace slowed somewhat in the second set as Mirnyi started finding his trademark serve-and-volley form.
The challenger quickly began to make a match of it, keeping pace with the former tearaway and taking the set into a tie-breaker. Roddick missed on two match-point chances while Mirnyi let go of two set point opportunities before sealing it 11-9.
The third was another battle with Roddick saving only the fourth and fifth break points he had faced to hold for 4-all. The American broke for 6-5 on a pair of Mirnyi errors and escaped with the narrow win a game later on his fourth match point.
Bureau Report
The US Open champion, playing his first ATP match since his grand slam victory more than a month ago, finally worked his way out of danger to defeat big-hitting max mirnyi 6-1, 6-7 (9/11), 7-5. It was a two-hour battle for the second seed, who swept through the opening set only to suddenly encounter resistance from the world number 24 which took another 90 minutes to ultimately control.
Roddick claimed his second career victory against Mirnyi after beating him in the semi-finals at the previous Masters in Cincinnati in August.
Roddick started off superbly in a 26-minute opening set which looked like setting the stage for a rout. Ten of those minutes were taken up by the opening game, in which Mirnyi saved four break points before finally falling to 0-1 when Roddick landed a winner in a corner.
After that, there was no stopping the American, who broke the Belarus player twice more. The torrid pace slowed somewhat in the second set as Mirnyi started finding his trademark serve-and-volley form.
The challenger quickly began to make a match of it, keeping pace with the former tearaway and taking the set into a tie-breaker. Roddick missed on two match-point chances while Mirnyi let go of two set point opportunities before sealing it 11-9.
The third was another battle with Roddick saving only the fourth and fifth break points he had faced to hold for 4-all. The American broke for 6-5 on a pair of Mirnyi errors and escaped with the narrow win a game later on his fourth match point.
Bureau Report