NEW YORK (AFP/AP) - Three points from his first Grand Slam title, Andy Roddick stepped to the baseline, crouched, sprang up like a jack-in-the-box and smacked the ball.
The result: Ace. Next point: Ace. Again: Ace.
Andy Roddick blasted high-powered serves with pinpoint accuracy to capture his first Grand Slam tennis title, overwhelming world number one Juan Carlos Ferrero here to win the US Open.
Roddick fired 23 aces and 46 winners past the French Open champion for a 6-3, 7-6 (7/2), 6-3 triumph, the 21-year-old American smashing fireballs that kept the third-seeded Spaniard off balance and under pressure the entire way.
"I took it to him. I was very aggressive," Roddick said. "I think a lot of it had to do with me being pretty aggressive."
Ferrero never broke the powerful serve of Roddick, who connected on 63 percent of his first serves and saved three break points, one in the third game of the match and two more when Roddick held for a 4-3 lead in the final set.
"I knew he served well but this was better than I thought," Ferrero said. "It's very difficult to return his serve. It's very difficult to play him from the baseline. He served so hard all the time. I really didn't feel my rhythm.
"In my service games I had the pressure to win it because I knew it was very difficult, if not impossible, to break his serve."
Roddick extended his ATP Tour-best win streak to 19 matches, improving to 27-1 on hardcourts since Wimbledon losing only to Tim Henman.
"When he would get his emotions a little too high, too charged up, it would affect his concentration," says his coach Brad Gilbert. Andy has been 37-2 since Gilbert began coaching him, and calming him, after a first-round French Open exit. "He tended to go big and bigger.
"The serve is the same. He's working all the spots. He used to go too big all the time. He mixes it up better now. I think when you use your head out there, good things happen."
Roddick wept after blasting a 133-mph ace past Ferrero on match point to achieve a dream. Then the 21-year-old American climbed into the stands at Arthur Ashe Stadium to share a hug with his family after a million-dollar win.
"I was getting goosebumps," Roddick said. "I'm in absolute disbelief. I'm kind of shocked. I just can't imagine my name and US Open champion together. It's more than I could ever dream."
"I came to this tournament so many times as a little kid and watched from way up there," announced the champ who's still a kid, by the way, after he received his trophy in front of thousands of New Yorkers.
Roddick used a forehand winner to deny Ferrero on a break point in the third game of the first set, then broke him in the next game and went on to claim the first set with an ace after 28 minutes.
Neither man mustered a break point in the second set, setting up a tie-break in which Roddick sent a forehand wide to give Ferrero a 2-1 lead.
But Ferrero fired four errant forehands in the next five points and Roddick finished the set with a forehand winner to take command.
"The part that surprised me was the second-set tie-breaker," Roddick said. "He made a couple errors that maybe he normally wouldn't."
In the last set, Ferrero saved three break points in the sixth game and Roddick rescued a pair in the seventh game. In the eighth, Ferrero committed his first double fault of the match to hand Roddick the only break he needed.
"I knew there was a good chance if I got the break I was going to win," said Roddick.
"Earlier in the set I didn't hit the ball very well. I was just hoping he'd miss. The next game I calmed down and decided to hit through the ball."
Roddick ended matters with a 133-mph ace after one hour and 42 minutes.
"I just wanted to go as fast as possible so I didn't have to think about it," Roddick said.
Joining Stefan Edberg as the only former US Open boys champions to win the men's crown, Roddick became the eighth different Slam champion in as many events, matching the longest such streak in Slam history.
Roddick came within a point of being ousted from the tournament in the semi-finals, saving a match point in the third set before rallying to defeat Argentina's David Nalbandian in five sets over 3 1/2 hours Saturday.
Ferrero, 23, said he was not affected by an unprecedented Slam endurance test of four matches in as many days, spending eight hours on the court in three days prior to the final thanks to a compressed schedule due to rain.
"I didn't play my best tennis but Andy played so good," Ferrero said. "He served unbelievable and I couldn't do so much of what I do."
Ferrero won his first Slam title in June at the French Open and will be the new ATP world number one Monday after beating top seed Andre Agassi in the semi-finals. Roddick will move past Agassi into second place.
"I feel a litle bit sad right now but tomorrow I'll be number one so it will be a big day for me," Ferrero said.
Roddick denied Ferrero the first US Open title for a Spaniard since Manuel Orantes won his 1975 crown on clay.
-- September 8, 2003