Roddick Over Verdasco: On and On and On

His serve was on, his forehand was on, his confidence was on, and so he too is moving on. In an hour and eight minutes, Andy defeated Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-4, still waiting to call his first challenge with the new Instant Replay.

The aces were flying today and so were the unreturnable serves, Andy’s fastest hit 142mph. Andy broke first in the match to take the lead 5-3 over Verdasco. As he stepped up to the baseline, ball in hand, ready to close out the set, he was nothing but relaxed. Andy focused, served-and-volleyed on match point, and took the set at 6-3.

The first game of the second set almost brought out a challenge call by Andy, but he said that it “wasn’t worth it” because Verdasco was already up 40-15 so early in the set.

“Even though be broke me, I didn’t miss one ball that game. So, I regrouped and stayed with it,” Andy noted in his post-match ESPN2 chat. Andy broke first again after Verdasco failed on converge a break point, Andy leading 3-2 from a two-handed backhand. Verdasco answered back by breaking Andy evening the score at 4-4. This is where the regrouping came into play and Andy broke back, 5-4, with a fist pump to boot. Andy served for the set and took the match with a whipping forehand winner, 6-3, 6-4.

“It feels good to win, I’m happy,” Andy commented to ESPN. “Somewhere in the second set of the first match, my serving just clicked, and I’ll take 75% first serves any day.” Andy’s first serve percentage was impressive, his average serving speed at 130mph for the match is impressive, and so is this win.

“I don’t know a lot about Greul, I’ll do some scouting and ask around,” Andy said on his next opponent, Germany’s qualifier Simon Greul who just took out Tim Henman. “I’m just excited to be moving on.”

So are we! Go Andy!