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Roddick searching for answers after Open upset
(China Daily)
Updated: 2006-01-23 09:00 MELBOURNE: Andy Roddick was left searching for
answers after his shock 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 loss yesterday to unseeded Marcos
Baghdatis in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
The world No 2 had been an overwhelming favourite to beat
Baghdatis, but could not counter the Cypriot's impressive shot-making.
Andy Roddick of the U.S. reacts
after missing a shot during his match against Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus
at the Australian Open tennis tournament in Melbourne January 22,
2006. [Reuters] |
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"I didn't play that badly," Roddick told a news conference.
"I think I would have beaten most people today, but let's give credit where
credit's due. I thought he played a very good match."
Roddick actually won one more point that Baghdatis over the course of the
match and won a higher percentage of points on his first serve, his greatest
strength.
But the Texan could only manage 39 clean winners to his opponent's 63.
"If you look at his stats, they're pretty impressive. The shots he was able
to come up with were very, very good," Roddick said.
"I just thought maybe I was a little bit spacey out there. Maybe I just
wasn't totally on top of things.
"A lot of times I was in control of the point, and he came up with the goods.
A couple times I was sloppy at the wrong moments."
Roddick won the US Open in 2003, but has not won a grand slam since the
emergence of Roger Federer and said it is getting tougher all the time.
"There are no unanswered questions in my eyes as far as preparation and stuff
like that. So you're kind of left searching a little bit. That's an uneasy
feeling," he said.
"There's a lot of good players out there. There's one guy (Federer) who has
set himself apart, and the rest of men's tennis is very deep where anybody can
beat anybody on a given day.
"It's always tough, but the good thing about tennis is there's always next
week. It's not like we're an Olympic sport where we have to wait another four
years."
Baghdatis, who called the win the best of his career, will now face Croatia's
seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic who beat former winner, Swedish 10th seed Thomas
Johansson, in straight sets.
In the women's single's contest, Lindsey Davenport made
it into the quarters along with Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin-Hardenne and
Nadia Petrova.
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