Roddick Outlasts Lu To Reach Second Round In Shanghai
| By: James Waterson |
Photo Credit: Natasha Peterson/Corleve |
(October 10, 2011) Tenth-seeded Andy Roddick advanced to the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters when he outlasted 74th-ranked Lu Yen-Hsun of Taiwan 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 Monday.
Roddick played an aggressive first set. He hit six aces and made 75 percent of his first serves, while he won nearly half of his returning points.
The pressure proved too much for Lu, who dropped serve twice. The second set saw a dramatic reversal of fortune, as Roddick’s first-serve percentage dropped to 54 percent. That was just enough to enable Lu to break serve once, while he fended off four break points.
Despite gaining a foothold in the match, Lu couldn’t replicate his success in the deciding set, as he won only five points on Roddick’s serve and he was broken twice.
“He plays so high risk,” Roddick said. “You know, overall I thought it was pretty good, save four games maybe.”
“You know, overall I thought it was pretty good, save four games maybe."
The American was coming off of a first-round loss to South Africa’s Kevin Anderson at the China Open last week. He now has a 29-13 record for a year he said is “the toughest year I've had."
"I feel like I've been starting and stopping a lot. You know, I'm going to probably have to adjust how I go about things a little bit more," he said.
"I think the frustrating thing is a lot of times, when I've done the work, I haven't felt terrible about my tennis, but I've been unprepared a lot of the time this year.”
“I'm happy I won against a player like Kevin because he can beat so many world class players on his day," Tomic said. "I'm happy I won that third set because his serve was too good the whole game.”
Tomic will face fourth-seeded Mardy Fish, who he narrowly lost to last week in Tokyo. American 22-year-old Donald Young, who advanced to the finals in Bangkok, reached the second round when he beat 398th-ranked Chinese wildcard Gong Mao-Xin 6-1, 6-4.
He will face 13th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka in a rematch of their second-round marathon match at the US Open next.