Fair-play costs A-Rod
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ByEurosport
Published 05/05/2005 at 18:33 GMT
A fair-play gesture when Andy Roddick was leading Spain's Fernando Verdasco by one set and three match points backfired badly on the top seed at the Rome Masters on Thursday. Verdasco came back from the brink of defeat to oust the American 6-7 (1-7) 7-6 (
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One set down and serving at 3-5 and 0-40 in the second, a linesman called Verdasco's second serve out and the umpire started to announce the American as the winner.
Roddick, however, corrected the call, telling the umpire the ball was in.
Verdasco went on to hold serve and then break his distracted-looking opponent in the following game.
The set went to a tie-break, which the Spaniard won easily by whipping crosscourt winners off both wings.
Roddick then put a forehand wide to drop serve in the opening game of the decider and the unseeded Verdasco, now playing with increasing confidence, went on to claim victory.
"Maybe I should have stood on the mark," Roddick joked with reporters. "I don't think I did anything extraordinary, the umpire would have come down and said the same too.
"I just saved him the trip.
"When he [Verdasco] hit it, before I saw the mark, I thought it was out. On a hardcourt I wouldn't have done anything but then I walked back and saw it was good."
Roddick was generous in praise of Verdasco and also spoke of his own improvement on a surface.
Before losing in the Italian capital he had won seven matches in a row on clay, including his run to the U.S. Clay Championship title in Houston last month.
"Sometimes you feel you've done something wrong and deserve to lose the match. That wasn't the case today. He just went for broke," said Roddick.
"In the [second set] tiebreak I didn't play a single bad shot...he was playing with confidence, he just turned 180 degrees.
"Compared to where I was [on clay] last year, though, I'm improving. I was a point away from the quarters here and I'll continue my preparation for [the French Open at] Roland Garros [at the Hamburg Masters] next week."
His reward will be a quarter-final against fellow number nine seed Guillermo Coria of Argentina, who crushed home favourite Davide Sanguinetti 6-0 6-4.
In other third round matches completed on Thursday evening, 15th seeded Czech Radek Stepanek defeated Nicolas Almagro of Spain, conqueror of Marat Safin in round two, 4-6 6-4 6-2.
Stepanek will play fifth seed Rafael Nadal in the quarter-finals.
The Spaniard, winner of the Monte Carlo Masters and Barcelona Open, defeated Argentine 11th seed Guillermo Canas 6-3 6-1 in the night match on Central Court.
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