Andy Roddick has no plans to follow the lead of good friend and fellow American James Blake and wear sleeveless shirts on the tennis court.
``If I wore a sleeveless shirt, people would try to feed me after the match,'' Roddick said after beating Fernando Vicente of Spain to move into the fourth round of the Australian Open yesterday.
Roddick said he had ``two breadsticks sticking out of my sleeves,'' and needed to stick with the traditional shirts.
Heading home
They have been a fixture at the Australian Open -- both on and off the court. But the blue and yellow colors of Sweden have been lowered at Melbourne Park for this year at least.
A year ago the Swede's were celebrating when Thomas Johansson beat Marat Safin in the men's final.
But Johansson has not returned to defend his title because of injury, and the last of the Swedish players was beaten yesterday, when qualifier Andreas Vinciguerra lost against sixth seeded Roger Federer.
It's a long way from the days when, cheered on by a big and vocal band of Swedish supporters decked out in the national colors, Stefan Edberg and Mats Wilander won five consecutive Australian Opens between 1983 and 1988. There was no Australian championship in 1986 after a date-change.
It is also the first time since 1982 that Sweden has not had at least one player in the last 16 of the men's singles.
More problems
Belgian Xavier Malisse suffered heart palpitations during his second round win at the Australian Open. But yesterday, it was his arm that was giving him trouble.
So much so that Malisse, seeded No. 20, had to retire from his third-round match against Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian.
The Belgian said his arm ``just got worse and worse playing'' and he believed it may be to do with having played a lot of matches after having two months off.
``Every time, extending it, the forehand and service, it just got worse and worse,'' said Malisse, who played in the Hopman Cup in Perth and the Sydney International before heading to Melbourne for the Open.
``I just think I played a little too much after two months off,'' he said.
Malisse was treated for heart palpitations during his Wimbledon semifinal loss to Nalbandian last year.
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