Roddick returns with win in Cincinnati
After missing the Rogers Cup in Montreal due to illness, Andy Roddick was back in action and on the winners list in the first round of the Cincinnati Masters, claiming a three-set win over Ukraine’s Serjiy Stakhovsky.
Roddick had admitted to feeling “pretty lethargic and not quite as excitable as I normally am” after bowing out in straight sets to Frenchman Gilles Simon at the Legg Mason Tennis Class in Washington earlier this month, and has since revealed he’s been suffering from a mild case of mononucleosis (glandular fever) for the past couple of months.
It’s a diagnosis that goes some way to explaining Roddick’s below-par grass-court season, where 63rd-ranked Dudi Sela defeated him in straight sets in the third round at the Queen's Club and the relatively unknown Yen-Hsen Lu sent the 2009 runner-up packing from Wimbledon in a fourth-round match that went the distance.
So too did Monday’s match against Stakhovsky, but this time Roddick found himself on the winning end of the court once the final point had been played in a match that wasn’t without its frustrations for the 27-year-old.
As the second set tiebreak slipped away from the American, Roddick’s racquet felt the full force of his wrath, but though the second set went to his opponent, Roddick raced to a 5-0 lead in the third before closing out the match 6-4, 6-7(5), 6-1.
“The third set was almost a blessing in disguise that I got to play it, because that's the best I've played in a couple months. So, unfortunate that I was there, but I'm glad I played well in it," Roddick said post-match.
It’s a step back in the right direction for the world No. 13, whose ranking dropped out of the top 10 earlier this month, as he seeks to arrest his rankings slide and find form ahead of the US Open, which begins at the end of August.
Next step for Roddick is a second round match against Dutchman Thiemo de Bakker, and should he win that a potential third-round match against fifth seed Robin Soderling is on the cards.
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