Thursday, March 06, 2008 Roddick ousts Ferrero By Jobannie C. Tabada Contributor
DUBAI—Andy Roddick put on a masterful show of blistering serves Tuesday night as the American obliterated a sluggish Juan Carlos Ferrero, 6-2, 6-4, in the opening round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships in Dubai, UAE.
Roddick, the world No.6, shot down 18 aces while holding down Ferrero, No.22 in the world and champion here in 2001, to just 11 points on his serve to secure a second-round meeting with Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu, who earlier disposed of Australian qualifier Joseph Sirianni, 6-4, 6-4.
Rafael Nadal of Spain and Serbian Novak Djokovic, the world No.2 and 3 respectively, likewise posted contrasting victories Tuesday, avoiding the fate of top-seeded Swiss Roger Federer who was upset Monday by Britain’s Andy Murray. Nadal needed two hours and 22 minutes to subdue Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4, in the afternoon match, while later in the evening Djokovic, who lost to Federer in the quarterfinals in his debut here last year, flubbed two match points before claiming the third in an easy 6-4, 6-3 victory over Croatian teenager Marin Cilic.
“This year is quite different for me. I’ve been getting a lot of attention,” said Djokovic, the 20-year-old reigning Australian Open champion and 2007 US Open finalist. “My life has changed a lot since Melbourne.”
In the day’s finale at Center Court that featured the last two players to hold the world No.1 before Federer took over on Feb. 2, 2004, Ferrero was nowhere near in top form, looking overmatched as he often reacted half a second late to Roddick’s booming serves.
Debut
“That was as well as I’ve served in a while,” Roddick said after the game.
But while the big-serving American’s performance lived up to the fans’ expectations in his debut performance in Dubai, Roddick sounded surprised with the level of his play.
“Honestly, I came here not knowing what to expect. My performance tonight exceeded my expectations,” said Roddick.
The Spaniard’s inability to adjust to Roddick’s mighty serves clearly affected the rest of his game as Ferrero regularly committed unforced errors, the last one an elementary mistake in the deciding 10th game of the second set where he had a relatively easy forehand and a wide open half court. He missed the shot badly and hit the net, easily handing Roddick the encounter’s only match point on Ferrero’s serve.
Ferrero had an opportunity to wrest the momentum when he was able to critically test Roddick’s serve in the fifth game of the second set, surviving three successive aces to force deuce three times. Roddick, however, came up with his 15th ace to secure the game.
The closely fought fifth game somehow energized Ferrero as he held serve two more games to keep the set close at 4-4. But that was as far as he could get as Roddick’s serve came through again in the ninth game in which he blanked Ferrero, unsettling the Spaniard’s nerves once more and hastening his demise as he failed to hold serve in the 10th.
“I’d really like to stay around in Dubai for a while, so I’m looking forward to winning more games. I’ve heard a lot of things about this place,” Roddick said at the post-game conference, shifting his attention to his newfound getaway.
“It’s kind of like a paid vacation. I stay in a pretty cool hotel…I could spend hours just walking around there,” he said, referring to his pricey accommodation at the Burj Al Arab ."It’s weird, it’s like Stars Wars man – you take a picture of it and it doesn’t look real on the camera,” he said. “We’re not just that creative back home.”
Eight of the top 10 in the world, including all top seven players, are competing in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, considered one of toughest events on the tour, which offers a total prize fund of $1,401,000.
