Tennis
Roddick romps to victory
2011-08-24 07:32
North Carolina - American Andy Roddick romped past lucky loser Edouard
Roger-Vasselin 6-2 6-4 to reach the third round of the Winston-Salem
Open on Tuesday, and get his US Open preparations back on track.
Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion, has seen his buildup to the season's
final grand slam interrupted by an abdominal injury, but showed no
signs of rust speeding past his French opponent in 73 minutes.
Ranked 21 and outside the world top 20 for the first time since 2001,
Roddick has played just one event since Wimbledon losing his opening
match last week at Cincinnati.
But the American looked in vintage form blasting 11 aces past
Roger-Vasselin and completed the match without facing a break point.
Unlike the WTA event in New Haven, Connecticut, which had play halted by
the 5.9 magnitude earthquake that rattled the eastern seaboard of the
United States, the Winston-Salem carried on without interruption.
Ukrainian third seed Alexandr Dolgopolov was an easy 6-4 6-4 winner over
Argentine Carlos Berlocq while fourth seed American John Isner eased
past Israeli Dudi Sela 7-6 6-2.
It was also smooth passage into the third round for Nikolai Davydenko,
the fifth seeded Russian rolling over American qualifier Michael Russell
6-2 6-2 while seventh seed Juan Monaco of Argentina stopped Germany's
Tobias Kamke 7-5 6-0.
Ukrainian No 9 Sergiy Stakhovsky saw off Kazakhstan's Andrei Golubev 6-1
2-6 6-4 while 10th seeded Dutchman Robin Haase, the ATP Tour's comeback
player of the year, swept past American James Blake 6-4 6-1.
The second round was not without a few surprises, Belgian Steve Darcis
upsetting 11th seed Dmitry Tursunov 3-6 6-1 6-3 while Japan's Kei
Nishikori was a 7-6 6-2 winner over 12th seeded Spaniard Pablo Andujar
and Frenchman Julien Benneteau beat 16th seed Russian Igor Kunitsyn 6-3
6-1.