“Funner? Oh, that’s bad journalism,” Andy joked around with one of the journalists in his post-match press conference. Whether he was winning points from a 140mph bomb or scrambling for each shot, it didn’t matter which means of winning them was “funner,” he was just happy he won.

Andy moves on at the SAP Open by defeating Australia’s Chris Guccione in three tight sets, 6-4, 6-7(3), 7-6(5). After an hour and thirty-nine minutes, these two tower-serving aces finally met at the net to shake hands, but it was a quite a battle to get there.

The match started on Andy’s serve and the aces started sailing, serving Guccione two bagel games in a row. At 2-1, Andy earned a double break point, but converted at 30-40 when he wailed a forehand that was too hot to handle for Guccione’s perpetual serve-and-volley game. A roaring fist-pump brought the crowd to its feet and Andy into the air. Taking and holding the lead, Andy ran away with the set at 6-3. Andy was fired up after only giving up one point the entire set.

“It’s going to come down to a few points here and there,” Andy commented on his thoughts coming into this match. As the second set commenced on Guccione’s racquet, it became obvious that his serve-and-volley game was here to stay and that Andy would have to aim his returns wide and deep to take away the Australian’s game. As this plan of action was harder said than done, a tie-break was the only answer. “Yes!” was Andy’s reaction to the first point of the ‘breaker when Guccione hit an overhead wide, and then Andy quickly jumped to a 3-0 lead. With the ball being served out of the Guccione tree again, Guccione held and broke back when Andy double faulted at 3-2, and then the points were all one-sided. A third set became necessary to determine the outcome.

“Yes, there was a lot of concern after that second set,” Andy noted, “and it was a tough third.” This tough third set saw more volleying, emotion from Andy, and determination to win. Right off the baseline, Andy meant business. He was scrambling to get to every drop shot Guccione lofted over the net and pounded every groundstroke he could. At 2-1, Guccione lost a 40-15 lead and the two were at deuce. Andy was pumped up, and Guccione knew how to bring him down- aces, two in a row. Andy responded right back and rocketed three aces in a row at Guccione before easily holding by forcing the error. Andy was on fire with his quick feet and stellar passing shots, getting the crowd on his side all the way. With Andy’s heart on his Lacoste sleeve and the breaker on his racquet, Andy opened with an ace, and earned a 5-0 lead by playing flat-out great tennis. With everyone at the edge of their seats as Guccione crept back up to trail closely at 6-5, Andy had to seal the deal. After an ace was called wide, Andy sliced a 71 mph serve out wide that just clipped the line and threw off Guccione’s return to hand the “W” to Andy.

Even though Guccione hit 20 aces won 76% of his service points, Andy’s continuous fight to win points no matter what, including hitting bombs and scrambling a bit, kept him here in San Jose for another day. Stay tuned to AR.com for the match preview where Andy will take on the qualifier who defeated James Blake to win Delray Beach tomorrow evening, second on after 7pm. Go Andy!