Andy Roddick benefited from the replay system at Queen's Club on Thursday, then held on to beat Alex Bogdanovic of the UK 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4 in the third round of the Wimbledon warm-up tournament.
Roddick, who had 22 aces, was tied at 5-5 in the tiebreaker when he asked for the Hawk-Eye system to challenge a call. The decision was overturned, giving the US player a set point and taking away a match point for his 117th-ranked opponent.
"I've been a big supporter of Hawk-Eye and today is the reason why," Roddick said. "There's a big difference between being down match point and being up set point. Needless to say, I would have been a little perturbed if they'd have got that one wrong."
PHOTO: AFP
Bogdanovic also benefited from the replay system. Trailing 5-4 and facing a set point, he challenged a fault and Hawk-Eye showed that it was an ace.
"I though Alex played a good match," Roddick said. "He kept the pressure on me from the first ball and I was lucky to get out of there today."
Rain ended play as top-seeded Rafael Nadal was due to serve for the match while leading Max Mirnyi of Belarus 7-6 (3), 5-3.
Games went with serve in the opening set, before Nadal went on to dominate the tiebreaker. Rain halted play for over an hour early in the second set and when play resumed, Nadal broke to lead 3-1 after a backhand error from Mirnyi.
Fernando Gonzalez of Chile also advanced, beating Robby Ginepri of the US 6-2, 7-5. Croatian qualifier Marin Cilic defeated Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 4-6, 6-3, 6-2.
In the second round, eighth-seeded Marat Safin beat Sebastien Grosjean of France 3-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a match that had been suspended overnight.
The Russian won all six points played on Thursday but then lost 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4) to last year's finalist Ivo Karlovic of Croatia.
In another third round match, fifth-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia led Nicolas Mahut of France 4-3 before rain interrupted play.
KEY GOAL: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei is now free to focus on taking her fourth doubles title of the year with Barbora Strycova; they are due to face Nao Hibino and Makoto Ninomiya Taiwanese No. 1 Hsieh Su-wei on Monday returned to the court for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic shut down the WTA Tour, falling to a 6-3, 6-1 defeat to US Open quarter-finalist Elise Mertens, who made a solid transition from the hard courts in New York to the clay at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. “I’m not sure how well I adapted, to be honest,” Mertens told the WTA Web site. “I just feel like I might still be struggling a little. It was also [Hsieh’s] first match of the week, so that was a bit of an
‘GREAT EVENING‘: In the women’s singles in Rome, Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova advanced, while Rafael Nadal swept into the quarters in the men’s singles Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic on Friday had to dig deep to advance to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome. The top seeds, who did not drop a game in their opening match on the clay courts at the Foro Italico, battled to a 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 victory over sixth seeds Veronika Kudermetova and Katerina Siniakova in 1 hour, 39 minutes. The reigning Wimbledon champions saved nine of 11 break points and converted three of eight, winning 56 percent of points on their second serve and sending down two aces
‘FUN TIME’: Denver’s Nikola Jokic said that his team would not accept that anyone else is better than them and the opposition need to play much better than they do Just about everyone had LA versus LA written in for the NBA’s Western Conference finals, but the resilient Denver Nuggets have crashed the party. Behind Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic, the Nuggets advanced to the conference finals for the first time since 2009 to face LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers. Game 1 is scheduled to be played tomorrow. This was no ordinary road. The Nuggets fell behind 3-1 in their first-round series against the Utah Jazz before bouncing back with three straight victories. Then they went down 3-1 to the Los Angeles Clippers in the second round before winning in Game 7
‘GREAT COMPETITOR’: Former French Open champion Garbine Muguruza was tested by American teenager Coco Gauff, before the Spaniard advanced in three sets Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova of the Czech Republic on Thursday cruised into the quarter-finals of the women’s doubles at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia by handing their Japanese opponents a rare “double bagel,” a feat matched by US Open losing finalist Victoria Azarenka in the women’s singles. Top seeds Hsieh and Strycova took just 49 minutes to see off the challenge of Japanese duo Nao Hibino and Makoto Ninomiya 6-0, 6-0 on the clay courts at the Foro Italico in Rome. The Taiwanese-Czech duo saved both break points they faced and converted six of 14, winning 62 percent of their first
RSS