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DUBAI: Andy Roddick produced one of his best performances for many
years to win the Dubai Open title with a 6-7 (8-10) 6-4, 6-2 win
over Feliciano Lopez of Spain on Saturday.
Roddick, who beat French Open champion Rafael
Nadal and Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic along the way, did
not drop his serve throughout the tournament and delivered 84 aces
during the week.
Several of them were more than 150 miles an
hour—not far from his world record of 155mph—but the
American’s performance showed that there are other ingredients to
his game other than the most dynamic serve in the business.
Roddick had phases when he attacked well from
the net too, and, particularly in the final set, came up with some
accurate groundstrokes that frustrated the in-form Lopez and
extracted errors.
“I didn’t feel like he was missing at all in
the first set. When I lost the tiebreak, I told myself just keep at
it because I don’t remember him missing a ball. This is as well as
I have ever played,” said Roddick.
“With these great players here and to finish a
week like this it is just great,” he added.
It was all the more remarkable because Roddick
had a 6,000-mile journey from Memphis via Frankfurt, which left him
tired and jetlagged and exhausted for the first two days of the
tournament.
It also caused comment that Roddick should play
so extremely well in his first tournament since splitting with his
coach Jimmy Connors, the legendary former player.
“I was, like, asleep before I played my first
match, asleep on the players’ lounge floor, with people stepping
over me and Djokovic dropping stuff on me. I was pretty tired.
“I didn’t know what to expect. So maybe
that’s why I played well. Tennis can be like that.”
-- AFP
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