Canadian Frank Dancevic toppled top-seeded Andy Roddick 6-4, 7-6 (7/1) on Saturday to reach the final of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, where the two top seeds crashed out.
Roddick, bidding for a third title in five years at the venue, went down in a hail of 15 aces from the 109th-ranked player in the world, who had never played even a quarter-final on the ATP circuit before breaking through at Indianapolis.
James Blake, the second-seeded defending champion who beat Roddick in last year's final, was bundled out by another big hitter in a rain-delayed quarter-final.
PHOTO: AFP
Teenager Californian Sam Querrey fired 34 aces in a 7-6 (10/8), 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/4) over Blake.
Dancevic, traveling without a coach but with the moral support of his girlfriend, was scheduled to face off yesterday against Russian third seed Dmitry Tursunov.
Tursunov beat Japanese amateur Kei Nishikori 6-1, 6-4 in another rain-delayed quarter-final then came back to beat Querrey 7-6 (7/5), 6-2.
The Russian converted his fourth match point to book his final berth.
Tursunov defeated Dancevic two months ago in the second round of the grasscourt Queen's Club tournament in London.
Dancevic bombed four aces midway through the first set against Roddick to level at 4-all, then broke the US player after saving a pair of break points himself.
The 22-year-old underdog took the set and then broke to start the second, giving the break back in the fourth game.
But Dancevic managed to keep his composure on the big occasion against the former world No. 1, the Canadian ending his last three service games with aces to force a tiebreaker.
He dominated in the decider to earn a stunning upset in just more than 90 minutes.
Roddick was disgusted with another loss just a month after going out in a Wimbledon semi-final from a position of strength against Richard Gasquet.
"I didn't have much to give out there today, I don't know why. I wasn't feeling that well," Roddick said. "I served badly, but I've been doing that all week. I don't know what happened."
Dancevic, the last man into the draw by ranking, didn't have a clear idea either of how he had achieved his miracle.
"I haven't thought about being in the final; I'm just enjoying the moment," he said. "My only game plan was not to get broken, I didn't want to get behind against him.
"It seemed that when I got stressed out, I would hit a few good shots and win the game," he said. "That happened two or three times."
"I'm happy that I got through today -- this is one of the best matches of my career," he said.
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