Roddick Wins While Bartoli, Kerber Roll On At Eastbourne

By Erik Gudris

Photo Credit: LEON NEAL/AFP/GettyImages

(June 20, 2012) -- It took him three months, but Andy Roddick finally won his first complete match since defeating Roger Federer in Miami as the former No. 1 reached the quarterfinals of the AEGON International at Eastbourne.

Taking on Frenchman Jeremy Chardy, Roddick easily won the first set 6-2 but the second set turned into quite a battle that saw Roddick miss a return on his first match point chance at 6-5. Chardy eventually forced a tiebreak that saw Roddick take a tumble on the grass and lose out on his next six match point chances until a final down the line backhand pass gave Roddick a 6-2, 7-6(6) win. For the match, Roddick hit 20 winners and only four unforced errors.

"Winning's fun, losing sucks, so I'm happy here," quipped Roddick after the victory, which earned him his third quarterfinal of the year.

Joining Roddick in the quarterfinals will be fellow American Ryan Harrison who saved all five break points against him to take a 6-1, 7-6 (2) victory over Yen-Hsun Lu. Harrison will next meet Denis Istomin who upset No. 2 Marcel Granollers of Spain 6-1, 4-6, 7-6(2).

The other upset of the day belonged to Fabio Fognini who fought back from being down 3-5 in the final set against No. 4 seed Bernard Tomic to earn a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win. Fognini will now face Roddick next.

On the women's side that yesterday saw the top three seeds all suffer opening round losses, order was restored more or less as No. 4 seed and defending champion Marion Bartoli rolled through Canada's Aleksandra Wozniak 6-2, 6-2. No. 5 seed Angelique Kerber had no trouble against South Africa's Chanelle Scheepers 6-3, 6-2 while No. 7 seed Lucie Safarova took out local favorite Heather Watson 7-6(5), 6-1.

The only mild upset belonged to Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who celebrated getting a Wimbledon seeding by edging out American Christina McHale in three sets 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.