Andy Roddick had beaten Robin Soderling in ATP Masters 1000 events at Indian Wells and Cincinnati earlier this year, but the big Swede turned the tables in the quarterfinals here at Bercy and won decisively, 7-5, 6-4.
Roddick was honest when he described his performance as “pretty average” which, in sporting terminology, means not very good. Having qualified for the ATP Tour World Finals in London the day before, Roddick admitted that he might have had a bit of a let down.
“Obviously you want to do well here but there was probably a little bit of an edge missing today,” he said. “The last two weeks, you’re kind of on pins and needles trying to qualify (for London) and it might have been a little bit of a mental let down today, which is completely on me. That’s my fault. I should be professional enough not to have that but…….”
You always get it straight from Roddick and he was also speaking from the heart when he talked about the satisfaction of reaching the eight-man Finals field for the eighth time in his career — a remarkable feat of consistency.
“It certainly doesn’t get any easier to qualify for these things,” he said. “And this time is probably as proud as I have been of making it because I feel as if I only had three or four healthy months this season with getting sick and having nagging injuries here and there. So it feels good. Feels like I got something out of it.”
Before retiring to the player’s lounge and another session of Stieg Larsson novels, Roddick was asked what he thought about the upcoming Davis Cup final between Serbia and France in Belgrade.
“I’ve talked about this a lot and, you know, I’m not sure what’s going to happen,” he said. “Serbia has the best player in the tie (Novak Djokovic) but one of France’s strengths is their depths and options. I’m glad I’m not Guy Forget (the captain) and have to decide who the second player is going to be. I don’t think that’s going to be an easy decision.”
A couple of hours later, Michael Llodra had made it a little easier for his captain. Continuing in the rich vein of aggressive form that he displayed while beating Djokovic the day before, Llodra served Nikolay Davydenko off the court 7-6, 6-1 to reach an ATP Masters Series semifinal for the first time in a career that stretches back 11 years.
As one of the few natural serve and volleyers in the game, Llodra is relishing the exceptional speed of this court and is backing up his big left-handed serve with some decisive volleys. Davydenko, who won this title in 2006 as well as the ATP Finals in London last year, is recognized as one of the best returners in the game, but even he couldn’t handle the Frenchman’s delivery.
This week Llodra had been chatting informally to an old friend, the former French No. 1 Pierre Barthes, who scrawled down some angles on a piece of paper to demonstrate how the angle of delivery could be improved by standing a foot closer to the center of the service line.
Llodra seemed to get the message. Taking the Russian out of the play with bombs down the center line to the deuce court, Llodra won 91% of his first serves and 60% of second deliveries. Match-winning stuff. Captain Forget will be impressed.
Federer makes semis
Roger Federer finally broke through the quarterfinal barrier at Bercy with a comprehensive 6-1, 7-6 defeat of the Austrian left-hander Jurgen Melzer and will now play his first ever semifinal here against Gael Monfils on Saturday afternoon.
Monfils will presumably be able to rely on the same raucous support from a 14,000-strong crowd that he enjoyed while beating Andy Murray 6-2, 2-6, 6-3 in the last of the quarterfinal matches. Every Monfils winner — and there were plenty as he sent sizzling forehands down the line — was greeted with a pounding of bongo drums high up in this cavernous arena.
Murray said it just created a great atmosphere. “They support their players really well here and that’s fine,” said the laconic Scot who felt he had played a good match considering he had not got to bed until 3:00 a.m. after another late match on Thursday.
Unusually for Murray, he was erratic off the ground and eventually found the Frenchman’s tireless running and acrobatic retrieving too much to handle.
