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Melbourne has the sort of climate that can lure you out into
brilliant sunshine only to spit rain at you while working on your
tan. There must have been a rainbow somewhere on this confusing day
and Andy Roddick eventually found his after being interrupted on
his way to a 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker
on the Hisense Arena.
Despite plenty of early rain, the roof had been left open on
Melbourne Parks’ second court — as opposed to Rod Laver
Arena which had been closed from the start — and officials
appeared to be caught unaware by the advancing showers. So there
was a hiatus at 2-2 in the second set but that was never going to
impede Roddick’s progress any more than the 17 aces produced
by his worthy but outclassed opponent.
The win enabled Roddick to add to “the constant
procession of little goals” that he had set for himself
leading up to the ATP event in Brisbane he won a week ago. Asked
about his progress following the knee injury which sidelined him at
the end of last year, Roddick replied, “At first I got to be
able to walk; then I got to be able to run; then I got to be able
to move from side to side. When I started in Brisbane I was about
ready to start as far as health. Obviously I always want to be on
court and spectating at the ATP World Finals in London — I
think I was there for two days — wasn’t that easy,
especially when I felt like I had earned my spot.”
But that was last year. Now Roddick is starting fresh and his
immediate goal is to get past the semifinal road block here in
Melbourne. Four times in seven years the American has made it to
the last four but never further. The only road block Andy ran into
today was an apparently immobile line judge.
“I ran into one of those immovable objects called a
referee,” Roddick said. “He wasn’t giving up any
ground. I didn’t see him. He wasn’t really trying to do
too much to get out of the way. I felt he was trying out for WWE or
something.”
Happily, the collision did nothing more than slightly jar
Roddick’s knee. “You know, it’s a good sign that
I can kind of take that. It didn’t do too much to me.”
Kevin Anderson, a giant South African with an appropriately
big serve, couldn’t do too much to Andy Murray when they
finally were allowed on the Rod Laver Arena court after Maria
Kirilenko had taken 3:22 to beat Maria Sharapova — a marathon
that was followed by Kim Clijsters quicker victory over the
Canadian qualifier Valerie Tetreault.
Murray is seeded fifth here having dropped briefly to No 5 on
the ATP ranking because he chose to play the Hopman Cup in Perth,
where there are no ranking points, rather than defend his title in
Qatar. That allowed Juan Martin del Potro to overtake the Scot but
with del Potro also dropping points a week later, Murray has now
returned to No 4. Whether that quirk in the ranking system will
turn out to be detrimental to Murray’s chances remains to be
seen because it means he will have to face Rafael Nadal at the
quarterfinal stage if they both get that far.
When Anderson defeated a stunned Novak Djokovic at the Sony
Ericsson in Miami two years ago, many people thought that South
Africa had found a new star. But Anderson sank without a trace back
into the challenger world and there was little in his performance
here to suggest that he can really make his mark at the top.
Murray, moving at great speed and pulling off some spectacular
winners, outplayed him at every turn.
“I got off to a good start, breaking him immediately
and that helped,” said Murray, who felt that conditions under
the roof here were not too dissimilar to those at Wimbledon when
the new roof is closed. Murray, of course, is one of the very few
players to have experienced those conditions at Wimbledon where,
predictably, the first year with the roof produced hardly any rain.
“It gets quite humid, quite heavy,” he said.
“But with conditions getting windy outside, there was an
advantage to playing indoors.”
In the first but, presumably, not the last men’s
marathon of the championships, the 6-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic
outlasted unpredictable Czech Radek Stepanek 2-6, 7-6, 6-4, 3-6,
6-4 in a battle that lasted 3:56. Chile’s Fernando Gonzalez
made shorter work of the little Belgian OIivier Rochus, winning 6-1
in the fourth.
