The worst birthday of Andy Roddick's life ended with three straight tiebreak losses and a shocking first-round exit from the US Open against a player making his debut in the tournament on Tuesday.
Roddick, the champion two years ago and the No. 4 seed this year, fell 7-6 (4), 7-6 (8), 7-6 (1) on his 23rd birthday to Gilles Muller, the first man from Luxembourg to compete in the Open.
The 22-year-old Muller, ranked No. 68, outhustled, outmaneuvered and, most astonishingly, out-aced Roddick 24-17 to claim his second huge upset of the summer. In his first Wimbledon, he beat French Open champion Rafael Nadal.
Asked how he managed to dismantle Roddick, Muller replied sheepishly, "I have no idea."
"For me, it was just unbelievable to come out here today," Muller said. "I told myself to enjoy it and I did every minute."
Roddick hated every minute of it after blowing a 5-2 lead in the first set and a chance to serve out that set at 5-3. From then on, Roddick was frustrated by the left-handed Muller's canny mix of angled groundstrokes and serves, his blend of speeds, and his amazing ability to hit line after line.
Roddick flung his racket to the ground, dropped it another time in disgust, and kept chomping on a towel during changeovers. More than a few times he stared at the lines where Muller's shots landed, as if not believing his eyes, or watched the replays on the giant screen atop the stadium.
"I don't really remember a loss where I've felt this bad afterwards," Roddick said. "I love playing here. I probably had the best practice week I've ever had in leadup. It just didn't translate tonight. ... I'm in a little bit of shock right now, to be honest. I'd give anything to go back four hours right now."
Muller didn't serve as fast as Roddick but that didn't matter. Roddick couldn't figure out how to break him in the tiebreaks and in the last two sets. Rather than asserting himself, Roddick looked flat as Muller dictated the match and forced the action, running up 65 winners to Roddick's 39, though making 33 unforced errors to 15 by Roddick.
"I took some risks and maybe sometimes I was also lucky," Muller said.
Luck wasn't needed for No. 1 Roger Federer, who won his first-round match against Czech newcomer Ivo Minar 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 in 1 hour, 1 minute earlier in the day.
It was a sweltering afternoon at the Open as Britain's leading players exited. No. 12 Tim Henman of Britain lost 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 in the first round to Spain's Fernando Verdasco, and No. 28 Greg Rusedski fell to James Blake of the United States 7-5, 7-6 (3), 6-3. Women's No. 2 Lindsay Davenport won in straight sets in the breezy evening after No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo, No. 6 Elena Dementieva and French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne, No. 7, did the same during the day. There were touches of drama in three-time French Open champ Gustavo Kuerten's 6-2, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (3) victory over American Paul Goldstein.
Muller, a former ITF junior world champion and US Open juniors winner like Roddick, cracked the top 100 last August, a week after reaching his first ATP final at Washington with an upset of Andre Agassi in the semifinals. Muller also reached a hard court final this summer at Los Angeles before falling to Agassi.
Muller described himself then as "crazy" at times when he was younger.
"I don't know if I wanted it too much or if I didn't know really what I wanted," he said. "I got so upset and lost focus and lost the match because of this. Some days it went well, some days the second Muller was there and calmed me down. ... If I'm calm, I feel I can really play with these guys."
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