Andy Roddick edges past Radek Stepanek to earn a quarter-final berth – Swiss Indoors Basel 2011
Former world number one, Andy Roddick of the United States, recovered a sloppy start to take down the 25th ranked Czech competitor, Radek Stepanek, in the second round of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel on Thursday evening.
The seventh seeded American took one hour and forty four minutes of play to take down the Czech opponent in three sets, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3, booking a berth in the quarter-final rounds of the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) World Tour 500 event.
Currently holding the 15th spot in the world rankings, Roddick registered his 33rd victory of the running year and the third consecutive one against Stepanek in singles encounters. These two men last met in Brisbane Internationals in 2010, with Roddick winning in straight sets and his Thursday’s win improved the all-time head-to-head record by 7-1 against Stepanek.
Roddick will take on the Swiss Maestro, Roger Federer, in the quarter-finals to fight for a berth in the semis. Third seed Federer outplayed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland in the second round to charge in to the quarter-final draw of the Davidoff Swiss Indoors Basel on Wednesday.
“I was frustrated that I didn’t get more first serves in court [in the first set], but regardless of how badly you play in set one, it’s still only one set and I just tried to remind himself of that and luckily I played better in the last two,” said Roddick, reflecting on his second-round win. “I thought he had a pretty good serving day, so to be able to break four times was good for me. Obviously it’s a tall order [against Federer], but I’ll go out there and give it a go and hopefully come out on top.”
The seventh seed delivered 67 per cent of his first serve on target and secured 33 out of 46 points on it to come out as the winner. He banged in 10 cracking aces and nailed four out of five break points to drive the unseeded Czech out of the competition in a convincing manner.
Stepanek was off to a flying start in the opener and came out firing at the seventh seeded American to put him under pressure early. He nailed three serve breaks to close out the first set at 6-2 but lost all his steam in the following two sets to let Roddick back in business. The American raced through the last two sets to turn the tables on Stepanek and advanced to the round of eight of the tournament in s convincing fashion.
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