Andy Roddick’s late tactical switch paid off as the No.1 seed survived a close quarter-final against Xavier Malisse on Friday at the Atlanta Championships.
With the match locked at 4-4 in the deciding third set, Roddick elected to drop deeper behind the baseline to return the Belgian’s serve. He was rewarded with a break and he then served it out to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“I wasn’t returning well close in,” Roddick said. “I just didn’t have my timing or whatever. He missed eight of his first nine serves when I stood back and did that. He was in a pretty decent groove on first serves in the third set. He was hitting his spots. He has a good serve, but he doesn’t normally pop aces, you know? I gave him a different look.”
PHOTO: AFP
Roddick set up a semi-final against sixth-seeded Mardy Fish, who cruised past fellow American Taylor Dent 6-3, 6-0. Fish is targeting back-to-back titles after winning on grass a fortnight earlier in Newport, Rhode Island.
A third American, John Isner, also progressed to the semi-finals, quickly escaping the breathless heat by beating Michael Russell 6-1, 6-2 in less than an hour.
Isner’s semi-final opponent will be South Africa’s Kevin Anderson, who defeated Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko 6-3, 6-4.
PHOTO: EPA
Roddick improved to 9-0 on the ATP tour against Malisse, but he struggled in the first set with two double-faults and had problems throughout the match in earning just six of 38 first-return points.
However, Roddick, the tour leader this year with a 28-4 record on hard courts, never lost the power of his serve and finished with 17 aces.
Malisse, the seventh seed, wasn’t upset that many fans cheered after he hit errant shots.
“It’s nice to have a crowd, at least,” Malisse said. “Even if it’s against me, it doesn’t really bother me. They were really respectful.”
Isner, who rose to tennis fame with a record-breaking longest ever match at Wimbledon, showed why he’s one of the ATP tour’s service leaders with 11 aces and an 89 percentage on first serves.
A brief match was exactly what he needed after laboring for more than two and a half hours in the Atlanta heat against Gilles Muller on Wednesday.
“I remember just standing out there, not that I was feeling tired, it’s just that sun is so intense,” Isner said. “It’s brutal when you’re out there and you can’t get a break from the sun, you can’t get a breeze out there, so it’s really tough.”
Isner’s record five-set match at Wimbledon took three days and more than 11 hours to complete. He breezed past Russell in 56 minutes.
The Isner-Anderson semi-final is a throwback to their college days, when Isner led the University of Georgia to the 2007 national title — something that made him the fan favorite at this tournament.
Isner went 3-0 against Anderson in college and is 2-1 in professional matches, including a straight-sets, second-round victory four months ago at Indian Wells.
“I’m going to have focus foremost on my serve,” Isner said. “That’s what he’s going to do, too. If it comes down to tiebreakers, so be it. If I take care of my serve, I should have a good chance to maybe win.”
■GERMAN OPEN
AP, HAMBURG,GERMANY
Third-seeded Jurgen Melzer of Austria beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-4, 6-1 on Friday to reach the semi-finals of the German Open.
Melzer will meet another Italian in the semi-finals of the clay-court tournament, Andreas Seppi, who upset seventh-seeded Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil 7-6 (7/0), 5-7, 7-5.
Melzer was a semi-finalist at the French Open and is the highest seeded player left in the field. He was a semi-finalist in Hamburg in 2004, while Seppi reached the last four in 2008.
Florian Mayer upset sixth-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero, beating the Spaniard for the first time in five matches, to reach a semi-final for the first time this year. The lone German left in the draw rallied to win 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-3.
Mayer’s semi-final opponent will be Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, who defeated Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan 6-4, 6-1 to make his first semi-final of the season.
■GASTEIN LADIES
AP, BAD GASTEIN,AUSTRIA
Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland became the only seeded player to reach the semi-finals of the Gastein Ladies on Friday.
The second-seeded Bacsinszky eased past Sandra Zahlavova of Czech Republic 6-0, 6-4 and plays Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger for a place in the final. Meusburger defeated No. 8 Anastasija Sevastova 7-5, 6-4.
Earlier on Friday, Alize Cornet of France and Julia Goerges of Germany advanced to the semi-finals.
The 52nd-ranked Bacsinszky took the first seven games against Zahlavova, who won only three points on serve in the opening set.
The Czech managed an early break in the second, but dropped serve twice as Bacsinszky advanced to her first semi-final of the season. Bacsinszky had won the only previous meeting against Zahlavova by the same score in Rome last May.
Meusburger, who reached the final against eventual champion Francesca Schiavone in 2007, saved five of seven break-points against Sevastova.
Cornet defeated Austrian wild-card Patricia Mayr 6-2, 6-7 (5/7), 6-2. The 81st-ranked Cornet, who eliminated top-seeded defending champion Andrea Petkovic on Thursday, broke Mayr nine times to qualify for her second semi-final of the season.
Goerges beat Russia’s Anastasia Pivovarova 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 6-4. The German, ranked 65th, was broken while serving for the match at 6-5 in the second set, but had three breaks in the decider to close out the match.
■SLOVENIA OPEN
AP, PORTOROZ,SLOVENIA
Johanna Larsson of Sweden reached her first WTA tour semi-final by beating third-seeded Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-3, 6-2 on Friday at the Slovenia Open.
The 84th-ranked Larsson will next play Ksenia Pervak of Russia, who ousted qualifier Anastasiya Yakimova of Belarus 6-2, 2-6, 6-1.
Yakimova was playing her third quarter-final after beating top-seeded Jelena Jankovic, who retired from their match with an ankle injury.
Pervak jumped into the draw to replace French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, who withdrew because of a wrist injury.
Larsson also upset a seeded player in the opening round, No. 8 Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.
Anna Chakvetadze beat sixth-seeded Vera Dushevina 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 after saving two match-points in an all-Russian quarter-final.
Chakvetadze will face seventh-seeded Polona Hercog of Slovenia — the only seeded player left in the tournament — who defeated Stefanie Voegele of Switzerland 7-5, 7-5.
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