Roddick Bows Out

The toppling of the big names continued Thursday with American Andy Roddick failing to get to the quarterfinals. Roddick was knocked out by fast rising Croatian giant (he’s 6’6″) Marin Cilic. Cilic may still appear to look awkward being so tall yet only 180lbs, but there was nothing awkward about his punishing forehand. That weapon was hurting Roddick all afternoon. It kept finding the far corner of the court on Roddick’s forehand side and time and time again the American could not return it.
Roddick looked ordinary today, and his forehand in comparison with the younger Croat’s seemed invisible. Roddick spoke about this fact in the post match press conference.
“Forehand is just not doing anything. I’m missing it. That’s the one that I need to click right now.”
When asked about his opponent on this day, Roddick replied, “Well, he definitely isn’t scared to go after the ball. His aggressiveness is what won him that match today. He took it to me a lot more than I took it to him. You know, he serves pretty well. You know, I like – I like how he was aggressive.”
I have to admit that Roddick was pretty forthcoming in the press conference and I appreciated his honesty about the reasons for defeat. He gave his opponent his due.
There was an interesting moment in the final set, with Cilic up a break at 4-3. Roddick was about to serve when a fan in the crowd yelled something. Roddick proceeded to continue with his toss, yet he muttered something to himself in the process. The serve as an ace, yet Roddick told the chair umpire they should play a let because he had spoken. The umpire himself said he was not going to call a let, but Roddick insisted in a show of fair play. His next serve was an ace again, but the umpire overruled the call and said it was out. This infuriated Roddick, as the lines person had not made such a call, and this was on the far side of the court – quite a stretch for the umpire to see. Fortunately Hawk Eye did its job and proved Andy to be correct – the serve was good and he won the point. Throughout the next changeover Roddick argued with the umpire and chastised him for acting in such a manner.
After the match, Roddick had this to say about the incident:
“He responded by overruling the far sideline on a first serve on the next ball, which is just bush league. First of all, it’s an unwritten rule. You’re not supposed to touch that unless you’re – it’s almost impossible to be 100% sure on balls that miss like this (holding thumb and index finger up) on the far side of the court when they’re traveling 130 miles per hour.”
Roddick went on to admit it had no effect on the outcome of the match. Still, he spent a lot of energy dwelling on it.
While Roddick joins Federer on the sidelines now, James Blake did manage to advance to the quarter finals in a tight three set match against Dmitry Tursunov. Blake is now the only American left in the draw, and will meet German veteran Nicolas Kiefer in the semi finals Friday.
As for Roddick, his US Open preparation will have to continue next week in Cincinnati. His doubles partner here in Toronto, Mardy Fish, withdrew due to an injury.