Argentina's David Nalbandian tamed top-ranked Andy Roddick's powerful serves yesterday in a three-set victory at the Commonwealth Bank International that put him in the final against Andre Agassi.
The match lasted 2 hours, 15 minutes as Nalbandian, seeded eighth for next week's Australian Open, took a big third-set lead then had to hold on 3-6, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (4).
With his scrambling baseline style, he predicted a "war" against defending champion Agassi for the title today.
Roddick beat Nalbandian the first two times they played. The Argentine's unspectacular but solid game came through this time, with no sign of the wrist injury that has been hampering the 2002 Wimbledon finalist.
"He's not eight in the world for no reason," Roddick said. "It's a good contrast because he definitely handles my power well and he exploits my weaknesses some. I think it makes for a good matchup."
Players like the round-robin event at Kooyong because it guarantees them three matches with a competitive edge, so Roddick walked away feeling good despite the loss.
He'll face second-ranked Roger Federer today as both try to shake off the offseason rust before the year's first Grand Slam opens Monday.
"I'm not really worried," Roddick said. "You just want to get in there and maybe get the feeling back of competitive tennis again. So it's definitely a good thing to have tough matches like that, just playing in a competitive atmosphere."
After taking the second-set tiebreaker to even the match, Nalbandian broke Roddick's usually dominating serve twice to go up 5-1 in the deciding third set. Roddick rallied to force the tiebreaker, but didn't quite have enough left to finish off the comeback.
"We were tossing it up right in the sun, and he handled it a lot better than I did," Roddick said of his service problems. "I let it annoy me, which I probably shouldn't have."
Nalbandian, wearing a wristband that he said was more for psychological than physical support for the injured wrist, was pleased with his consistency.
"I didn't see the statistics, but I think I had a lot of winners and not many mistakes," he said.
Roddick, going into a major as the No. 1-ranked player for the first time, got one of the tougher first-round draws for the Australian Open. He'll face Fernando Gonzalez, whose 34th ranking just kept him out of the 32 seedings.
"It's good; means I'm going to have to play from the start," he said.
In other matches yesterday, Americans Taylor Dent and Robby Ginepri wound up their pre-Open preparations with victories. Dent downed Sweden's Thomas Johansson 6-7 (1), 6-2, 6-4, while Ginepri beat Sebastien Grosjean of France 7-6 (3), 6-2.
Adidas International
Lindsay Davenport and Martin Verkerk pulled out of semifinals on a rainy Friday at the adidas International, giving women's No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne and former men's No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt easy runs to the finals.
Hewitt, who won back-to-back titles in Sydney in 2000 and 2001, advanced to a championship match against Carlos Moya, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over veteran South African Wayne Ferreira.
Verkerk, the 2003 French Open finalist, played two games after going back on court following a two-hour rain delay before retiring, telling officials he was too ill to continue.
Davenport, seeded fifth for next week's Australian Open, strained chest and arm muscles Thursday in her quarterfinal win over Elena Dementieva and later withdrew from a doubles semifinal.
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