Andy Roddick beat fellow American James Blake 6-3, 7-5 in the second round of the BNP Paribas Open at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Sunday.
Roddick’s eighth win in 11 matches with Blake set up a third-round meeting with US Davis Cup teammate John Isner, who opened the day with a 6-3, 7-6 (2) victory over Ricardo Mello of Brazil.
Three-time tournament champion Roger Federer overcame Igor Andreev 7-5, 7-6 (4), while Australian Open champion and No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic stayed perfect for the year (13-0) with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan in the opening match of the night session.
Photo: Reuters
Two-time women’s champion Kim Clijsters of Belgium struggled but beat Italy’s Sara Errani 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 and reigning champion Jelena Jankovic of Serbia ousted Julia Goerges 6-2, 6-4 to join Francesca Schiavone of Italy, Ana Ivanovic of Serbia and Marion Bartoli of France in the third round.
In the night match, No. 3 seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia lost to Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-4.
ACES
Roddick rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the second set by losing just two points and hitting 10 of his 13 aces in his final five service games. Isner had 12 aces and did not face a break point against Mello.
Roddick said he thought he performed acceptably, but “it was tough to get a gauge on how I was playing because James was playing so aggressively. From the first game his strategy was — he didn’t want to let me get a rhythm.”
“I felt like he was coming out of his shoes [trying to hit winners]. It was tough, but the numbers looked good afterward. I felt like I was hitting the ball okay, so it worked out,” Roddick said.
Federer, who’ll meet Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina in the third round, is 4-0 lifetime against Andreev.
“I thought it was another tough match against him,” said Federer, who is 15-2 this year.
“I felt always kind of in control in the first set, even though I was down, 5-4. I felt I was in the match quickly against him, which maybe in the past wasn’t always the case because he’s got a lot of spin and a lot of pace,” he said.
“I was able to handle that better today, I thought. I had a good 10 minutes where I was able to get up 7-5, 2-0, and after that he found his way into the match and it really became competitive. I played a really good tiebreak,” the Swiss ace said.
‘WATERMELON’
Djokovic said the ball looks like “a watermelon” waiting to be hit these days.
“Confidence is crucial,” he said. “It’s a very important thing to have, in this individual sport. If you’re on the run, you don’t want to mess up. You don’t want to stumble. You just want to keep on going and hold the momentum. This is what I’m trying to do.”
Djokovic will meet Ernests Gulbis in the third round after the No. 31 seed from Latvia beat Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 6-7 (1), 7-6 (7), 6-1.
Lu’s consistency helped him edge a close first set in which the players faced only one break point apiece, both of which were saved.
However, Lu cruised through the tie-break, dropping only one point.
Lu opened a 5-3 lead in the second set and had a chance to serve out the match. Instead, he was broken by Gulbis and then served a double fault on set point in a tense tiebreaker, giving his 22-year-old opponent new life.
There was no looking back for Latvian in the deciding set, as he broke Lu twice — sending down six aces in the process — to claim the 2 hour, 10 minute-long contest.
“I beat myself,” said the 27-year-old Lu, who attributed the loss to lapses in concentration at key moments in the match.
When things started going awry in the third set, Lu said he began thinking of his struggles this year and never regained his concentration.
Lu has won only one of eight matches on the ATP Tour this year, the sole victory coming on Friday against Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.
Lu also lost a Davis Cup match in Shanghai earlier this month after serving for the match.
“It’s not that I haven’t had chances to win. In fact, I’ve been pretty happy with the way I’ve played,” Lu said. “But how to overcome my mental demons at key moments and keep my concentration for longer to close out matches is an important part of what I’ll work on in the future.”
BACK PROBLEM
In a late match, Milos Raonic of Canada ousted 13th-seeded American Mardy Fish 7-5, 6-4 despite needing treatment for a back problem during the match.
In the second round of the women’s doubles, Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland defeated fifth-seeded Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan and Zheng Jie of China, 6-3, 6-3.
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