Roddick And Schalken Share More Than Tennis

A life-saving leap brought Sjeng Schalken and Andy Roddick together on the balcony of Roddick’s Rome hotel suite during a fire that killed three people. When the pair reunite on a patch of grass in this week’s Wimbledon quarterfinals they”ll carry a shared sense of perspective of life that transcends tennis.

The second-seeded Roddick rolled past Alexander Popp, 7-5, 6-4, 6-4 and the 12th-seeded Schalken stopped Vince Spadea, 6-2, 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the fourth round of Wimbledon today to set up the quarterfinal clash that marks the first meeting since both men beat death.

“This is a much better position to be in,” Roddick said with a smile. “It’s weird how things work. Once you get on the court you try to forget about it and I’m sure we”ll both be focused on winning a Wimbledon quarterfinal.”

On a scary, spring Saturday morning in May, Roddick’s calm presence in the midst of a chaotic hotel fire helped him rescue several guests at the Grand Hotel Parco dei Principi.

A sleeping Roddick was awaken shortly after 5 a.m. Saturday morning by a bitter smell. Opening the door to his sixth-floor suite, Roddick confronted a face full of smoke from the fire. Through the smoky haze, Roddick saw several guests struggling for fresh air and pulled them inside to his suite and ushered them onto the balcony. The hotel had insisted on upgrading Roddick to its Royal Suite and the expansive balcony became a safe haven for guests, who leaped from their rooms above onto Roddick’s balcony.

Schalken, a Roddick opponent, leaped from the seventh floor into Roddick’s welcoming arms.

The memory of that embrace that will last a lifetime for Schalken and his wife, Ricky, who initially sought refuge on the roof of the hotel where they pulled several people to safety.

“First of all we met each other on the roof,” Schalken said. “There we were both also helping the elderly people. We had already panicked because we were trapped in our room. We had to jump from balcony to balcony to get on the roof of Andy’s apartment because we were on the seventh floor and Andy was staying on the sixth floor. “So when we were finally on the roof of the sixth floor, there we met Andy. Andy helped us jumping down to his balcony where we could see the firemen.”

Schalken said his experience in sport helped him keep his composure.

“I think we both kept cool. You have those moments in sport and you have those moments in life,” Schalken said. “You can see that Andy and me were a little bit cooler because you have those situations also in sport.”

Though tennis — and not the tragedy — will be their primary focus when they meet on court, regardless of the outcome of their quarterfinal clash, Schalken said he and Roddick will always share a friendship forged by their survival that night in Rome.

“I hope he’s thinking about that a little bit and taking it easy on me. He didn”t do that the last three times,” said Schalken, who has beaten Roddick once in five career meetings. “No, we will go out and go for it. Before and after we”ll be good friends and on the court we”ll try to win.”