It started with an ace but ended with an unforced error. On his 23rd birthday, Andy Roddick couldn’t find a reason to celebrate. He came out firing but lost momentum along the way, and never re-gained it. Gilles Muller, best known for beating Andre Agassi at the 2004 Legg Mason Championships, and Rafael Nadal at the 2005 Wimbledon, played an excellent match to pull out the victory in 3 tie-break sets.

The first set was progressing in a fairly routine manner. Andy had broken Muller and was up 5-2. He had the opportunity to serve out the set but Muller broke back and leveled the score at 5. Both players held serve to take the set to a tie-break, which Andy lost by a score of 7-5. From a wide-out ace only measuring up to 125 mph on the speed gun to a laser that was fired out at 146 mph, this set featured several quality shots from Andy but they didn’t come to his aid as Muller took the first set 7-6.

Muller showed no signs of slowing down in Set 2. Andy, on the other hand, got into trouble on his serve in the 4th and 6th games of the set respectively, facing breakpoints in both of them. He to keept his cool with the help of some big time shots, and held his serve each time. This set also went to a tie-break, and just like set 1, Muller came up with huge winners to snag it by a score of 10-8. Set 2 - Muller: 7-6.

Down two sets to none, this was crunch time. Andy pulled out all the shots but Muller continued his excellent play. Andy had a 0-30 window in the 8th game of that set but Muller erased that with 4 straight terrific points. Keeping with the pattern, this set also went to a tie-break, which Muller won by a score of 7-1.

Game, Set, Match - Gilles Muller.

Andy played a very good match but Muller was better on this day. The stats show a 72 percent first serve percentage for Andy with no double faults and only 15 unforced errors, which are all better numbers than Muller, but the end result shows something entirely different. Even Mojo, who was spotted sitting next to Mardy Fish, couldn’t seem to help Andy. From his serve to his passing shots and volleys, Muller kept Andy guessing and frustrated.With the help of consistent ground strokes and pinpoint serving, Muller bested the number 3 seed. It’s safe to say, this one was a shocker. Although this was a high quality match, the sting of a loss hurts just the same.

Everyone knows that Andy will pick himself up and come out firing the next time he’s on the court.

Stay tuned to AR.com for more updates. Go Andy!