Roddick advances

Published Wednesday July 23rd, 2008

Rogers Cup | Dancevic only Canadian left in singles

B1

TORONTO - With the match on the line, Andy Roddick was simply too much for Nicolas Mahut.

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The Canadian Press
MARQUEE PERFORMER: One of the more high profile players, Andy Roddick, of the United States, returns a shot during his match against Nicolas Mahut of France, at the Rogers Cup tennis tournament in Toronto on Tuesday. The sixth ranked Roddick needed three sets to post a 6-1, 6-7 and 6-3 victory.

The sixth-seeded American won his second-round match at the $2.6-million Rogers Cup tennis tournament Tuesday, dispatching Frenchman Mahut 6-1, 6-7 (6), 6-3 in a contest that was twice interrupted by rain.

Roddick needed just 28 minutes to capture both the first and third sets. Roddick was especially strong in the third, blasting six of his 18 aces in the final nine games and going a perfect 15-for-15 in first serve points won.

"I thought I moved well and most importantly I felt good physically," Roddick said. "All in all, I think it was a good match."

Another Canadian lost in singles Tuesday. Peter Polansky of Thornhill, Ont., dropped a 6-2, 6-4 decision to American Jesse Levine, who was born in Ottawa before moving to the U.S. at age 13.

Polansky's departure leaves Frank Dancevic as the lone Canadian remaining in singles. The native of Niagara Falls, Ont., faces Novak Djokovic of Serbia in his second-round match. Djokovic, who won this tournament last year when it was held in Montreal, is the third seed.

Dancevic, who upset Mario Ancic of Croatia in the first round, was also scheduled to play a doubles match with Levine against Australians Paul Hanley and Jordan Kerr on Tuesday night.

In other action, German Tommy Haas beat Spain's Carlos Moya 6-3, 6-2; 16th-seeded Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic beat Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-1; Russian Igor Andreev got past France's Gael Monfils 7-6 (5), 7-6 (3); Sweden's Robin Soderling defeated Argentina's Guillermo Canas 7-5, 6-1; Sweden's Thomas Johansson got past Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 7-6 (4), 6-1; Gilles Simon of France defeated American Donald Young 6-1, 6-3; Marin Cilic of Croatia beat Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 and Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman beat France's Arnaud Clement 6-3, 3-6, 6-0.

Roddick initiated one of the suspensions in play when in the first set he walked off the court leading 3-1 with it raining. Roddick said he did so more to prevent injury than risk losing momentum in the match.

Roddick also disputed a line call that allowed Mahut to hold serve in the second set and tie the score at 1-1. Roddick was chasing down a Mahut shot when it was called out, so he didn't take a swing at it despite being close enough to. The call was over-ruled - rightfully so, the American said - so Roddick figured there would be a replay of the point.

Instead, however, the umpire gave Mahut the point to tie the set. "I guess the rule is you have to be 100 per cent sure the person can't get to the ball and I said I would've had to have alligator arms not to get to that ball."

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