Roddick Remains King of Queen's
Roddick Remains King of Queen's
Andy Roddick successfully defended his title with a straight sets victory
over Sebastien Grosjean in the final of the Stella Artois Championship. In
what was a repeat of the 2003 final at The Queen's Club, Roddick served 11
aces en route to a 7-6(4), 6-4 win in 1 hour, 23 minutes. It was the
American's 14th career ATP title and his third of the year, having won
in San Jose and the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami.
Roddick's win lifts him up to fourth position in the INDESIT ATP 2004 Race,
and the 21-year-old American has now won 15 of his last 16 matches on grass.
"It's nice to win here again," said Roddick. "Any time you win a tournament,
overall it's a good feeling. My big concern coming into the tournament was
getting some matches on grass. But with getting some wins over some Top 10
players in the process, I couldn't ask for any more."
It was a case of deja vu in London, with the hot weather conditions also
similar to those of last year's final. However, while Roddick breezed through
to take the title in less than an hour 12 months ago, Grosjean made life much
more difficult for the American on this occasion.
The Frenchman, seeded No. 5, was looking to claim his fourth career title and
second on grass, having claimed his maiden ATP title in Nottingham in 2000.
And, having dropped just one set en route to the final, Grosjean looked in
confident mood as he created two set points on Roddick's serve at 6-5 in the
first set.
But Roddick, who twice this week produced world record serves of 153 mph -
first against Paradorn Srichaphan in the quarterfinals and again against
three-time winner Lleyton Hewitt in the semis - fired a service winner on
the first, while Grosjean missed his opportunity on the second by pushing
an attempted forehand winner wide.
That error let Roddick off the hook, and the American took full advantage in
the tie-break by clinching it 7-4 with his 10th ace of the match.
"I was very lucky in the first set," said Roddick. "He had a good look at the
forehand on set point. I hit a serve at 126, 127 mph up the T and he was all
over it - he knew exactly what I was going to do with it. But he missed the
bunny a bit and I was lucky, but after that I took advantage of it in the
tie-break."
However disappointed the Frenchman must have felt, he quickly put it behind
him as he broke Roddick's serve to love in the opening game of the second set
and won the first six points. But Roddick hit straight back, forging his way
back into the game and broke to level the scores at 1-1.
The set was seemingly heading towards another tie-break until the 10th game,
when two backhand errors by Grosjean cost the Frenchman his serve and the
match.
"If I'd have won that first set, maybe things would have been different for
me," said Grosjean. "It was a good match. Andy served very well again today,
and it's tough to play against him.
"But it's been a good week for me. I've played a good tournament and it's
good preparation for Wimbledon. I won my first tournament on grass [in
Nottingham in 2000] so it's a good surface for me. I maybe play a little
bit more aggressive on grass than I do on other surfaces.
"Roddick's the best server on the tour. He also goes to the net more than he
used to, and he's a little more aggressive on his second serve. He can go
flat, he can go wide. But he doesn't only count on his serve."
En route to his fourth final of the year, Roddick defeated Karol Kucera,
Mario Ancic, No. 7 seed Srichaphan and sixth seed Hewitt, his first win in
four meetings against the Australian.
Grosjean reached his 11th career final with wins over Todd Reid, Ian
Flanagan, Radek Stepanek and Korean qualifier Hyung-Taik Lee.
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