Andy Roddick and Sjeng Schalken share a bond that goes beyond tennis. Two months ago, Roddick helped Schalken escape from a hotel fire in Rome that killed three people.
Now their paths are crossing again — in the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
”Any time you share a very traumatic situation, and kind of share that fear with someone and get out of it, there’s always something there,” Roddick said. ”I don’t know what that is, but there is kind of something between us now. By the same token, we’re both going to try to win a Wimbledon quarterfinal.”
Roddick advanced to the final eight with a 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 win on Monday over 2,01m Alexander Popp of Germany, while Schalken beat Vince Spadea 6-2, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 to reach the quarterfinals for the third straight year.
Roddick has defeated Schalken in three of their four matches, including a 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 rout at the Australian Open in January.
”I’ve done pretty well against him our last couple of matches, but we’ve never played on grass before,” Roddick said. ”He definitely knows how to play on grass.”
Roddick, Schalken, Marat Safin and other players were staying at a luxury hotel in Rome for the Italian Open when a fire broke out in the early morning hours of May 1. Schalken jumped from his balcony to Roddick’s balcony a floor below, with the American helping to catch him. From there, they were reached by fire-truck ladders. Roddick helped about a dozen guests to safety from his balcony.
Roddick, who lost his first-round match in Rome, said last week it was ”probably the first time in my life, I was out on the court and could care less if I won or lost. I wanted to go home and I wanted to see my family.”
Asked about playing Roddick for the first time since the fire, Schalken said with a smile: ”I hope he’s thinking about that a little bit, and taking it easy on me.”
”He didn’t do that the last three times,” the 28-year-old Dutchman said. ”No, we’ll go out, go for it. Before and after we’ll be good friends, and on the court we’ll try to win.”
While Roddick versus Schalken has an intriguing story line, it can’t compete in pure tennis terms with the compelling quarterfinal between Wimbledon’s last two champions — Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt.
Top-seeded Federer, who hasn’t been broken or dropped a set all tournament, extended his grass-court winning streak to 21 matches by beating 2,08m Ivo Karlovic of Croatia — the tallest player in the game — 6-3, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (5).
During his current winning streak, Federer has won 53 of 56 sets, including 35 in a row. He has held in 89 consecutive service games at Wimbledon dating back to the 2003 quarterfinals against Schalken. He’s faced — and erased — six break points in four matches at this tournament.
Even the modest Federer is talking up his game.
”I have to say every match so far has been quite unbelievable,” the all-court Swiss star said. ”I’ve always played great tennis. There’s not a match where I remember I’ve played bad tennis and came through. I always played very good.”
Hewitt lost his first set of the championships but overcame ninth-seeded Carlos Moya 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (3). Hewitt leads Federer 8-4 in career meetings but has lost the past two. Hewitt won their only match on grass, at a Wimbledon warm-up in The Netherlands in 2001.
”I believe I can beat him,” Hewitt said. ”It’s going to be an extremely tough match. He’s the best player out there at the moment. He’s not number one for nothing.”
The other matchups for Wednesday’s men’s quarterfinals are Tim Henman versus Mario Ancic, and Sebastian Grosjean versus Florian Mayer.
Henman held off Mark Philippoussis — last year’s runner-up — 6-2, 7-5, 6-7 (3), 7-6 (5) to reach the quarters for the eighth time in nine years. Henman, bidding to become the first British player to win the men’s title since 1936, has lost four times in the semifinals.
Two women’s quarterfinals and four fourth-round matches were set for Tuesday. In the quarterfinals, 1999 champion Linsday Davenport faced 19-year-old Karolina Sprem, and 17-year-old Russian star Maria Sharapova was up against Ai Sugiyama of Japan.
The fourth-round matches paired two-time defending champion Serena Williams against 16-year-old Tatiana Golovin, Jennifer Capriati versus Nadia Petrova, number four Amelie Mauresmo versus Silvia Farina Elia, and Paola Suarez versus Rita Grande. — Sapa-AP