Roddick Serves His Way Into Third Round
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MELBOURNE, Australia – With Andy Roddick’s personal cheering section leading the way, it was a red, white, and blue day at the Australian Open.
Roddick, looking to atone for his first-round loss at the U.S. Open, overcame an ankle sprain and beat Wesley Moodie of South Africa 7-5, 6-3, 6-2 in the second round.
The second-seeded American was backed a group of young women who wore spangled red, silver and blue hats, with the letters of his name painted on their bare stomachs. With a sprinkling of American flags around Rod Laver Arena, Roddick might as well have been playing at home.
When Moodie, the Wimbledon doubles champion, netted a backhand on match point, Roddick turned to his contingent and pumped his fist amid chants of “USA!”
“Would you believe me if I said every one of those is my cousin?” Roddick said. “It’s nice when you have 30-someodd girls in bikinis cheering for you.”
Defending women’s champ Serena Williams played what amounted to a practice session, routing soft-hitting Camille Pin of France 6-3, 6-1 to extend her winning streak in Melbourne to 16 matches.
Another American, 20th-seeded James Blake, rallied past French qualifier Jean-Christophe Faurel 2-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.
Fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova withstood 31 unforced errors and fended off three set points in the second set to defeat American qualifier Ashley Harkleroad 6-1, 7-5.
Among the men, Masters Cup champion David Nalbandian, seeded fourth, beat 46th-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2. Also advancing were no. 7 Ivan Ljubicic, no. 8 Gaston Gaudio, 2002 champion and 10th-seeded Thomas Johansson, no. 11 David Ferrer, no. 16 Tommy Robredo and no. 18 Mario Ancic.
Roddick was at the top of his game on a cloudless day at Melbourne Park, where the heat had players sheltering in the shade between points. He yielded only 17 points in 15 service games and committed only nine unforced errors.
Moodie tried to pressure him, rushing the net behind a serve that was nearly as fast as Roddick’s primary weapon. Despite his deft volleying, Moodie won only 57% of his 58 net approaches as Roddick’s passing shots left him lunging from side to side.
Roddick broke serve for the first time to take the first set. After Moodie fended off a break point and held for 3-3 in the second set, he didn’t have another game point until he already was down 2-0 in the third set.
