Federer melts down against big-serving Roddick

No.1 loses 11 straight points in final set

FROM THE SONY ERICSSON OPEN IN MIAMI – After Roger Federer lost the opening set to Andy Roddick in their quarterfinal encounter, he’d clawed his way back into the match and was the dominant player midway through the third set, before he lost a whopping 11 straight points in a complete breakdown, to lose 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3. “It’s a tough way to finish the match,” a calm Federer said, “but what are you going to do? It’s over now.”

Federer had not faced a break point in the entire match, and was up 0-30 on Roddick’s serve at 3-all in the final set. Roddick played some good points to dig himself out of that hole, but the way Federer lost his next service game was shocking.

Roddick hit a forehand passing shot to win the first point, which Federer followed up with two framed backhands and a forehand unforced error into the net at 0-40, off a weak and short Roddick return.

There was no emotional outburst from the ’04 Miami champion after he clinched the vital break of serve, as he held his focus trying to serve out the match. “I was literally trying to pretend like nothing had just happened,” Roddick said. “Go up and serve the ball and at least try to hit a couple of big serves.”

He started off with an ace, saw Federer shank a forehand on 15-0, smashed his way to three match points, but then couldn’t put another overhead away at 40-0 as he lost the point. A forehand passing shot from Federer at 40-15 mounted a great deal of added pressure on Roddick to convert his third match point. “Please hit a big serve,” Roddick was thinking. “Hit a big serve and let it be done. I was telling myself when I step up the line, ‘you have an opportunity for this to be over in about two-and-a-half seconds. Let’s try our best to make one.”

That’s exactly what Roddick did, as he blasted a 140 mph service winner down the tee to end it.

‘Maybe this was one of the matches I should have won against him,” Federer said. “Because he’s had some other ones where I think he was supposed to win, but this time around it went his way.”

“I figure I was due,” stated Roddick. “He hadn’t missed a ball in a crucial moment for about six years against me. I figured the law of statistics had to come my way eventually.”

There were no break points in the first set, as Roddick was serving well and Federer failed to block as many returns back in play as he normally does when facing Andy. On the few points where Federer could have put some pressure on Roddick when the ball was in play, he just wasn’t as lethal as he usually is. With Roddick serving at 5-6, 0-15 for instance, Federer shanked a forehand and Andy cruised to the breaker. A match-tough Federer would not give up those kind of points so easily.

To start off the tiebreak, Federer immediately fell behind a mini-break, by shanking another forehand. At 1-2, another forehand error by Federer followed by a scintillating Roddick forehand return winner put the American up 4-1 with two serves to come. Federer won both those points but serving at 3-4, yet another forehand miss cost him the tiebreak. Roddick closed it out at 6-4 with a bombing 146 mph ace down the tee, a tournament record for the week.

ANDY NEAR FLAWLESS IN FIRST SET

Roddick hit only five unforced errors in that opening set, but he started to make some more mistakes over the course of the second set. Serving at 4-all, Roddick netted a backhand and sent a forehand wide to put Federer up, 0-30. On 15-30, Roddick hit a poor approach through the middle and was easily passed by his opponent. Roddick then came to net on a chip return by Federer, approached cross court to the Swiss’ forehand but could only scramble to block Federer’s passing shot. The No. 1 easily put away the short ball and served out the set to win 6-4.

Roddick’s chances were not looking all that well after losing that set, as his backhand was starting to break down. But from the 0-30 point at 3-all onwards, it took just minutes before Roddick would shake his head in disbelief after hitting a 140 mph service winner to win the match.

“It [felt like a final] until I went into the locker room and the guy said, ‘you’re playing at 7 pm tomorrow’. And then it didn’t anymore.”

Roddick said the performance from Mardy Fish last week – who beat Federer in the semifinals at Indian Wells – had inspired him to do well. “I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t encouraged by Mardy’s result. I had got home from a long day of practice, and I had just gotten off the phone with Mardy’s fiancée. She was going nuts, and I parked my car and went out again and went for another run because I think I was excited and optimistic. I had a sudden burst of energy and kind of ran till the sun went down because I was starting to feel, you know, hopeful.”

Roddick said he felt that he had never served better against Federer than he did last night. “That’s why I always said it’s tough to play against Andy, you know, that serve,” Federer said. “He’s always going to have a chance. That’s why I’m quite amazed about my record against him.”

Roddick has now won 2 out of 17 matches against the Swiss, his first win dating back to Montreal in 2003. “I’m not going to sit here and and act like all of a sudden I’ve fixed the problem. I think I’m batting 2 for 16. Still pretty crappy, but it’s a little less crappy.”

Roddick will face Nikolay Davydenko, a 6-2, 6-1 winner over Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, in the semifinals. Roddick has never lost to the Russian in five career meetings.