Wiped Out: Mutis Win Over Roddick Erases Last American Man From Roland Garros

Andy Roddick’s dreams of continuing his Roland Garros run dissipated in the dirt today. A gritty Olivier Mutis used his quickness, consistency and clever angles to erase the second-seeded Roddick from the draw with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-2 second-round victory on Suzanne Lenglen court.

All 10 American men have now been eliminated from the main draw. Mutis has taken out two of them, scoring a 6-4, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Robby Ginepri in the opening round before dismissing Roddick today. It marked the third consecutive year Roddick bowed out before reaching the third round.

Many of the top American men are aggressive baseliners, adept at shortening the court and dictating points with power on hard courts, but struggle on clay where footwork and the ability to expand the court with acute angles can be key components to success.

“There’s no doubt there are issues with clay. Our issues have issues that have issues right now,” Roddick said of the Americans ineptitude at Roland Garros. “That’s something we”re going to have to fix. That’s not a secret. If anybody’s going to deny that, you know, you might want to ask them again. But that’s something we got to work on. It’s better than, what was it four years ago, not just clay court tennis but all of tennis in America was looking crappy. You know, I choose to look at the positives.”

On a dreary day amid slow court conditions, Roddick got off to a bright start in collecting the first set. But he never really sustained the range on his groundstrokes against a player who entered this event winless on the ATP Tour this year. While the man from Mont. St. Martin, France played with patience in constructing points, Roddick often rushed through exchanges in an effort to end points prematurely.

“I started off playing pretty well at the beginning. Time after time I kept letting him back into it,” said Roddick, who beat Mutis in three sets in the semifinals of the 2003 U.S. Men’s Clay Court Championships last April. “Once I did let him back into it, he was a different player the latter part of the match than he was at the beginning. That’s my fault that I let him back in. Kudos to him for stepping up his game after that.”

Widely regarded as one of the best closers in the game, Roddick is usually adept at ending matches when he opens a lead. When he won the tiebreak to take a two sets to one lead, Roddick had the lead and the momentum, but Mutis was about to snatch both back.

The pivotal point of the match came at three-all in the fourth set when Mutis rapid runs in pursuit of Roddick’s shots created a sustained surge that saw him win eight straight games to take the fourth set and build a 5-0 lead in the fifth.

Anticipating Roddick’s attempts to rip winners, Mutis positioned himself perfectly to exploit the expansive court openings the U.S. Open champion created when his down the line drives came back crosscourt. Mutis, who regards his forehand as his best shot, create acute angles off that side and was willing to step forward and hit his backhand down the line off Roddick’s inside-out forehand.

“He started taking risks off of my big forehands, whether it be when I hit it inside-out, he would kind of take a swing at a backhand up the line,” Roddick said. “It worked for a couple games, then he got confidence doing that. Whereas early on,he wasn”t really doing much with that ball. He was allowing me to dictate. So credit to him for making that adjustment.”

Roddick’s athleticism is evident in his expressiveness around the court, but his movement on clay sometimes seems like off-balance bouncing of a man who’s more comfortable on hard courts rather than the smooth sliding of clay-court specialists. As aggressive as Roddick is on his serve, he was primarily passive in his return game and couldn”t consistently place his returns between the lines in the sets he lost.

An emotionally and mentally drained Roddick seemed to run out of energy at the end of the match.

“I didn”t have it. I mean, he was playing really well,” Roddick said. “I”d even try to enforce myself, grind out points. He was just coming up with really big shots.”

Roddick, who has not lost a set at love this year, won the next two games, but it proved to be a temporary reprieve as Mutis stepped up to serve for the match for a second time. The 1995 Wimbledon junior champion hit his ninth ace to build a 30-0 lead then reached triple match point when a Roddick backhand bounced beyond the baseline. Mutis ended the match with an emphatic ace out wide and thrust his arms in the air.

The 26-year-old Frenchman has never fulfilled the potential he exhibited in a promising junior career, partly due to a fear of flying that has kept him grounded to tournaments closer to home, but today, Mutis soared to the third round for the first time in his career.

“He’s very talented. There’s no doubt he has great hands, that’s evident right away,” Roddick said. “He was faster than I thought today. You know, I don’t remember him being that quick. I mean, he was running down a lot of balls and doing something when he got there. He played the big points well today. You know, he was very impressive today.”

The fact that Roddick played only one match during the European clay-court circuit did not provide the ideal preparation for Paris, but even with extensive play on clay, Roddick may well have met his match in Mutis today.

Despite his past struggles on the slow surface, Roddick conceded this defeat is particularly disappointing.

“I was expecting a little bit more of myself this year,” Roddick said. “I think I am a different player than I was 12 months ago and 24 months ago. So maybe it is a little bit more disappointing for me.”