Andy Roddick relied on the best part of his game -- the nasty serve -- to set up a 7-6 (3), 6-2 victory over Fernando Verdasco in his first match at the Cincinnati Masters on Tuesday.
Roddick won the tournament last year, making a triumphant return from a long slump and pulled side muscles that had left him vulnerable. This year, the tournament is more about maintaining than regaining.
"This is where the big turnaround took place," said Roddick, who went on to reach the US Open final after winning Cincinnati last year. "It feels like home."
PHOTO: AFP
After a ragged first set, he settled in and finished off Verdasco for his 20th victory in his last 23 matches. Roddick served 13 aces, one of them clocked at 235kph.
"I felt I got better as the match progressed," Roddick said. "It's better than the alternative."
The third-seeded Roddick was the only player among the tournament's top six with a match during the first two days. The top eight seeds got first-round byes this year, giving them time to relax and practice.
Rafael Nadal welcomed the break. The second-ranked Spaniard has been bothered by a sore right knee since his epic Wimbledon final loss to Roger Federer. His first match was to be yesterday.
"I have to be careful with the knee," he said shortly after a workout. "But I'm happy about how the knee worked in Montreal. It wasn't a problem, and I come here with the same expectations."
In earlier matches, ninth-seeded James Blake beat Colombian qualifier Alejandro Falla 7-6 (5), 6-1, and teenager Juan Martin Del Potro defeated 15th-seeded Guillermo Canas 6-2, 6-2 in the first meeting between the Argentines. Mario Ancic boosted his recovery from mononucleosis by ousting 15th-seeded Tommy Haas 3-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3. Ancic was affected in February, and didn't return to the tour until last week. Jarkko Nieminen removed seventh-seeded Tommy Robredo 6-4, 6-1.
Two-time runner-up Lleyton Hewitt needed two hours, 58 minutes to beat Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (5) in a match with so many twists that it lacked a turning point. Hewitt had eight double faults, including one in the tiebreaker that kept it close.
Britain's Andy Murray, struggling to come back from a wrist injury, became the first seeded player to lose in the tournament. The 14th-seeded Murray never got into a rhythm during a 6-1, 6-2 loss to Marcos Baghdatis in 49 minutes.
Murray was sidelined for three months by an injured right wrist. He returned in Montreal last week and lost to qualifier Fabio Fognini 6-2, 6-2.
"I'm pretty comfortable now that it [the wrist] is not going to hurt, but your swing changes a bit when you're not hitting for a while and you're obviously not swinging as hard," Murray said. "It's just getting used to swinging hard consistently all the time."
The biggest question about Nadal is how his knee will hold up on hardcourts, the same type that is used at the US Open. He got the knee treated during his five-set loss to Federer on Wimbledon's grass, and had it taped when he tested it at Stuttgart last month.
Kuznetsova struggles past Vinci
Former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova struggled to finish off Italy's Roberta Vinci 6-2, 7-6 (7) before reaching the third round at the Rogers Cup on Tuesday.
Kuznetsova, a tournament runner-up four times this year, lost her serve for the first time at 5-5 but immediately broke back to force a tiebreaker. The Russian third seed saved a set point against Vinci before finally winning the 90-minute match.
Israel's Shahar Peer moved comfortably into the third round by beating Italy's Tathiana Garbin 6-3, 6-2 for her first consecutive wins on tour since she played at Wimbledon.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier