previous - next - Back to Articles - News main - Home Source: www.usopen.org Lightning A-Rod by John Walters Wednesday, September 5, 2001 Andy Roddick is serving more than just 141 m.p.h. aces. The 19 year-old phenom is serving notice, with each passing round, that this is his US Open. Roddick decisively beat Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 in 90 swift minutes Tuesday night and in so doing became the youngest male to advance to the quarterfinals since Andre Agassi in 1988. "I mean, it kills me when I'm at home the second week of a Slam and you're watching guys win and stuff," said Roddick. "It's good to be a part of it for the first time." Roddick, who extended his match winning streak to 10, served eight aces and did not have his serve broken once by Robredo, who is also 19 years old. Like Tiger Woods, whose gargantuan drives have revolutionized golf, Roddick's first serve, which is tennis's equivalent of the tee shot, is taking the game to another level. Call it Mach-1. At one point in Tuesday's match Roddick boomed a 141 m.p.h. ace. The Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, which has been quick to embrace the charismatic, and slightly cocky, Nebraska native, cheered lustily. On his next serve Roddick served a 142 m.p.h. fault as if to say, I got more where that came from. USA Network's John McEnroe, a four-time winner here, compared Roddick's serve to that of a Chicago Cub fastball prodigy. "He reminds me a little bit of Kerry Wood," McEnroe said on the air, "who has a bit of an unusual delivery and developed arm problems and I worry about it with Andy. It seems like there's a lot of arm and he's got an incredible wrist snap but he doesn't use the torque in his hips and legs as much as ohter players. I wonder if over time he'll wear out that shoulder and arm." Maybe it's youth, but Roddick's game is caution-free at this point. Ranked no higher than 158th on the ATP Tour last year, his game has grown by leaps and bounds in the past nine months. Tonight he seemed to toy with Robredo, who had beaten Roddick in straight sets in their lone previous meeting a year and a half ago. Leading 5-3 in the second set, Roddick played perfunctorily during Robredo's service game, as if he wanted to serve out the match himself. Robredo won that 9th game at love but then Roddick had the ball back in his hand. As the Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd, which had been invited to sit in the lower bowl earlier in the set, exhorted him, Roddick served out at love himself, his final point an ace on a 133 m.p.h serve. He knelt over and pumped both fists, then thwacked a ball into the stands. Roddick will play either Tommy Haas or Lleyton Hewitt in the quarters Thursday. Haas and Hewitt's match was suspended by rain in the second set, with Haas up 1-0. Whoever fetches Roddick, they will have to deal with his grand slam, a serve so lethal that it leaves even its owner impressed. "I peeked," Roddick smiled, when asked if he looked at the clock that registers serve speeds tonight. "I snuck a look in. I knew I cracked (the 141 mph serve) pretty good. You know, that's just one serve. I'm prouder about the fact that I didn't get broken tonight. That means more to me than speed guns." |