Mason, Ohio — A testy Andy Roddick was upset by Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-1 yesterday in the first round of the Western & Southern Open, a key warmup for the U.S. Open.
The 11th-seeded Roddick received a warning from the chair umpire for flinging his racket to the court after losing the second set.
Then, after double-faulting in the second game of the third set to fall behind 30-40, he smacked a ball high into the stands, which prompted chair umpire Carlos Bernardes to give him a point penalty that put him behind 2-0 in the set.
“Obviously a split-second thing,” Roddick said. “Soon as I hit it, I wanted it back.”
The German later closed out the match with an ace.
“It was a judgment call for (Bernardes),” Roddick said. “Pretty sure I saw an 8-year-old girl catch it on the way down. He was telling me I hit it as hard as I could. I was like, ’Dude …”’
Roddick said he’d like to see tennis players get a little more leeway in situations like this. He said John McEnroe, for instance, is “still getting endorsements” because of his legendary temper tantrums on the court.
“I understand where (Bernardes) is coming from, but at a certain point, you know, you hit a tennis ball into a stadium, someone goes home with a souvenir, and it pretty much ruins the match from there to penalize the player.”
As the match went on, Kohlschreiber could see Roddick’s frustration growing, and took advantage of it.
Also in yesterday’s first round, Italy’s Fabio Fognini upset 14th-seeded Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-1 — his first win over the Serb in three matches.
France’s Richard Gasquet, the 12th seed, needed a second-set tiebreaker to overcome Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-1, 7-6 (4).
Other matches
n other matches, Spain’s Fernando Verdasco defeated Brazil’s Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 7-6 (4); Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov beat Turkey’s Marsel Ilhan 6-3, 7-5; Feliciano Lopez fought off fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; and Argentina’s David Nalbandian beat Japan’s Kai Nishikori 6-4, 6-4.
On the women’s side, former U.S. and French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 14th seed, beat American qualifier Jill Craybas 6-3, 6-4. Ninth-seeded Andrea Petkovic of Germany rallied after losing the first set to pull out a 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-2 win over Slovakian Jarmila Gajdosova.
Petkovic felt she almost didn’t deserve to win the grueling match, which lasted nearly three hours.
Ana Ivanovic of Serbia also rolled to a 6-0, 6-2 win over American qualifier Alexa Glatch. The former world No. 1 needed just 26 minutes to win the first set and exactly one hour to finish the match.
Upsets
In two early upsets, Australian qualifier Anastasia Rodionova, ranked 139th, routed No. 42 Polona Hercog 6-0, 6-0, while No. 101 Chanelle Scheepers, a qualifier from South Africa, eliminated 39th-ranked Canadian Rebecca Marino 7-5, 6-2.
Also, Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko defeated Japan’s Ayumi Morita 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Israel’s Shahar Peer beat Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 6-4, 7-6 (4); Czech qualifier Petra Cetkovska defeated Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues 2-6, 6-2, 6-2; and Italy’s Sara Errani beat U.S. qualifier Sloane Stephens 6-1, 7-5. /ap