Roddick gets a straight shock to the system

TENNIS:THE FIRST ball Andy Roddick struck across the net to Feliciano Lopez yesterday was an ace. He followed that with two more for a menacing opening game in his match on Centre Court.

Thoughts were that it would continue along that single barrel shotgun theme. The 28-year-old withered the grass in that flashing game but from there on the match began to untangle for him along with his hopes of ever taking a Wimbledon title.

Roddick had beaten the Spaniard in all seven previous meetings, most recently on grass at Queen’s prior to Wimbledon and six times before that on hard court. There was good reason for him to believe the second week was a reasonable target.

Lopez, a year older, played the game of his career and even went into the domain in which traditionally Roddick excels, the tiebreak. In that hostile territory he came out on top 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2), 6-4. He also hit more aces than Roddick and hit more winners.

“You know, the stuff that’s enabled me to beat him seven times, making passing shots under duress, making him play defence on his forehand, he did well today,” said Roddick. “Mixed up his serve. There weren’t a whole lot of patterns. I mean, you look at the numbers. He played great.”

The number that stood out was the 57 beside the total number of winners Lopez hit and just eight unforced errors. The numbers in the two tiebreaks were unusual too with Lopez keeping Roddick to just two points in each.

The 29-year-old also spread his game and almost equally hit the winners from the baseline and the net. But as much as Roddick could rationalise his defeat in a semi positive way, the law of diminishing returns has also crossed his mind.

“Well, sure. You’re human. I mean, of course it does,” he said. “You know, you may never get your favourite job either. No offense to your current employer . . . what do you do? You keep moving forward until you decide to stop. At this point I’ve not decided to stop so I’ll keep moving forward.

“The thing you guys have to understand is there’s no script. Some days you’re going to play well and lose, and some days you’re going to play like crap and win. Of course you have to come back and play better next year.”

Only two Americans, Mardy Fish, who did not start his match last night because of rain and Alex Bogomolov, whose test against Tomas Berdych was rained off, remain in the men’s singles. Sam Querry ranked 40, John Isner at 47, Ryan Sweeting at 69, Michael Russell at 90 and Robert Kendrick at 95, the only others in the top 100, are out of the competition.

The reality now is that no American man has won a Grand Slam singles title since Roddick did at the 2003 US Open, which is the longest drought for the US in their storied tennis history.