American second seed Andy Roddick served his way into a third straight Australian Open tennis quarterfinal with a straight-sets victory over German Philipp Kohlschreiber on Monday.
Roddick, the 2003 US Open champion, countered stiff resistance in the second set, which went to a tiebreaker before skating away in the final. The big-serving American, whose fastest effort clocked in at 228kph on Monday, will now take on Russian 26th seed Nikolay Davydenko in Wednesday’s quarterfinal.
It wasn’t as impressive performance by Roddick as in his earlier wins over Greg Rusedski and Jurgen Melzer, but he finished in style, ripping through the final set in 21 minutes.
”I felt like I was fighting it a little bit more than I had the first three rounds,” Roddick told a post-match press conference.
”I’m not too concerned. I got through it okay. We got through it. The good thing is I don’t feel like I had my best day and we’re sitting here talking about a three-set win. So that’s good.”
Roddick said the biggest positive at the year’s first grand-slam tournament so far was his high first-serving percentage.
”Probably the biggest thing I get satisfaction out of is that my first serve percentages have been very high. I think my lowest one has been 68 so far, with the exception of the first round,” he said.
”But the last three matches I think I’ve been putting the first serves in play a lot and that’s been helping me out a lot.”
Roddick was at times frustrated with the way things were going and flung his racquet to the court after 102nd-ranked Kohlschreiber held service in the opening game of the second set, but once he prevailed 8-6 in the second set tiebreaker, he motored home with two service breaks.
”Physically, I feel great,” said Roddick, now under new coach Dean Goldfine. ”There’s no little nagging injuries. I don’t feel like I’ve been struggling physically at all throughout the first four matches, which is positive.”
The 22-year-old American, on course for a semifinal in the bottom half of the draw with Australia’s big title hope Lleyton Hewitt, served up 15 aces in Monday’s match, but his error count was a much higher 25.
That was more than the combined number of errors he committed in his matches against Rusedski (eight) and Melzer (12).
Roddick claimed the first of his three service breaks in the sixth game of the opening set when the German’s forehand clipped the net and went out on break point.
Roddick was not taken to break point on serve in the second set, but he could not break Kohlschreiber, who thrilled the centre-court crowd with a trick shot between his legs during a rally.
But Roddick took command in the tiebreaker when the German made several backhand errors to hand the set to the world number two on the second set point.
It was plain sailing for Roddick in the last set, cracking Kohlschreiber’s serve wide open in the second and fourth games to storm to a 5-0 lead and the set.
Kohlschreiber, playing in only his third grand-slam tournament, was the last of eight Germans in the men’s draw to bow out of the tournament. — Sapa-AFP