Roddick stays alive in title defense
Updated: June 9, 2005, 12:19 PM ET
Roddick stays alive in title defense; Ancic fallsReuters
LONDON -- Defending champion Andy Roddick battled through
to the quarterfinals of the Stella Artois Championships
on Thursday with a testing 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory over
Slovakian Karol Beck.
"I've lost a couple of tight ones recently, so it was big
for me to stick around and hang in there and win one the
tough way," Roddick said.
Croatian fifth seed Mario Ancic, however, was eliminated
when he lost 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in the third round to gifted
French teenager Richard Gasquet in the pre-Wimbledon
grasscourt event.
Second seed Roddick, winner at Queen's Club in 2003 and
2004, was second best for much of his match against Beck
but the world No. 44 cracked when serving at 4-5 in the
third set.
"After the first set I think he really stepped up his
game," Roddick said. ``A lot of times he was just coming
up with the goods and getting the lead early in the
service games."
Beck doubled-faulted twice in succession to hand the
American an unexpected match point and blazed a backhand
out to lose his serve and with it a match in which his
drop shots and variation caused Roddick all sorts of problems.
"He played well, very smart and very crafty," said Roddick,
the runner-up at Wimbledon last year. "I'm just happy to get
through."
Roddick finished with 13 aces. He's trying to join John
McEnroe and Lleyton Hewitt as the only players to win three
consecutive titles at this Wimbledon warmup event.
The world No. 4 will play either French seventh seed
Sebastien Grosjean, whom he beat in each of the last two
Queen's finals, or American James Blake in the last eight.
Tenth seed Gasquet, who has never progressed beyond the
first round at Queen's before, took a significant
pre-Wimbledon scalp to show he can translate his
impressive clay-court form on to the slicker surface.
The 18-year-old, who reached the Hamburg Masters final
last month, edged the first set against 2004 Wimbledon
semifinalist Ancic.
After a second-set lapse Gasquet dominated the decider
to set up a quarterfinal against either Briton Greg
Rusedski or Czech Radek Stepanek.
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=2081003
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