Top-seeded Andy Roddick beat Taylor Dent 6-4, 6-7 (2), 7-5 on Wednesday to reach the third round at the Paris Masters.
The all-American match pitted two of the biggest servers on the ATP circuit, with Dent serving four aces in his first two service games.
Former United States Open champion Roddick made several unforced errors in the sixth game, where he saved three break points. He broke Dent in the ninth game to lead 5-4 and serve out the opening set.
”I feel like Taylor might have actually played the better match,” Roddick said. ”He served pretty well tonight, mixed it up, kept me off balance. This is one of those where I feel fortunate to have gotten through.”
Dent missed 11 chances to break Roddick in a match lasting two hours and 18 minutes. Dent was broken twice, including on match point when he double-faulted.
”He kind of gave it to me,” Roddick said. ”He had a lot of looks there in the third set. I didn’t really have a whole lot of rhythm going.”
Roddick, who won his fifth title of the season at Lyon on Sunday without dropping serve, now leads Dent 4-1 head-to-head and next faces number 16 Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia.
Roddick said Dent’s aggressive approach meant his service game was not as good as usual.
”Today was the toughest one I had,” Roddick said. ”I think in Lyon I only faced three breakpoints for the tournament.”
Having played his 70th game of the season, and with the Masters Cup in Shanghai later this month, Roddick feels the players are under too much strain. Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal are among those who have withdrawn from the Paris Masters through injury.
”We’re in a business where we beat up our bodies on a daily basis,” Roddick said. ”It’s an obvious problem. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to be an obvious solution.”
Roddick improved to 57-13 and has a 3-1 head-to-head record over Hrbaty. The Slovakian’s sole win was over four sets on clay in a Davis Cup match in 2003. Roddick’s three wins were all in straight sets on hard courts.
Meanwhile, ninth-seeded Thomas Johansson of Sweden beat Belgium’s Kristof Vliegen 6-3, 6-2 to move into the third round. He next plays number six Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia.
Six other seeded players also advanced on Wednesday. Number seven Gaston Gaudio of Argentina, number 10 David Ferrer of Spain, number 12 Robby Ginepri of the US, number 13 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, number 14 Tommy Robredo of Spain and Hrbaty.
Gaudio topped France’s Fabrice Santoro 6-4, 7-5, Ferrer downed Max Mirnyi of Belarus 6-4, 6-4, while Ginepri beat Fernando Verdasco of Spain 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-3, losing serve once in the match and breaking Verdasco in each set.
Former French Open champion Ferrero edged Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4), Robredo beat France’s Arnaud Clement 7-5, 6-2, and Hrbaty beat France’s Jean-Rene Lisnard 6-3, 6-3.
”I’d have liked to have gone further in this tournament,” Clement, the 2001 Australian Open finalist, said. ”It’s disappointing but it’s also logical. He was better than me in almost every department. On serve, returning; and that’s why there was such a gap.”
Later on Wednesday, fifth-seeded David Nalbandian of Argentina faced Germany’s Tommy Haas, and number 11 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile played France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu.
Roddick and Gaudio have five ATP titles each this season.
Federer and Nadal — the world’s top two players respectively — have 11 apiece. — Sapa-AP