Thu Jun 26 15:58:15 2008

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Roddick ousted; Nadal moves on at Wimbledon

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Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - Two-time runner-up Rafael Nadal came from behind to win his second-round match, while another two-time finalist, Andy Roddick, was a stunning loser Thursday at Wimbledon.

Dangerous Janko Tipsarevic proved to be just that on Day 4, as the 40th-ranked Serbian shocked a sixth-seeded Roddick in four sets, 6-7 (5-7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) on the famed Centre Court at the All England Club. With Roddick's untimely exit, the men's draw has already lost four of its top-seven seeds, as No. 3 Novak Djokovic, No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko and No. 7 David Nalbandian were all shown the door over the first three days of this fortnight.

Already trailing two-sets-to-one, Roddick blew some set-point opportunities in the fourth set, leading 5-4 at the time. Tipsarevic would manage a key hold of serve, and the second tiebreak of the match would follow soon thereafter.

In the fourth-set tiebreak, Tipsarevic ripped a backhand winner for a 4-2 lead and scalded another backhand winner for a 5-4 edge, setting the stage for his very big win.

Tipsarevic went up 6-4 when Roddick netted a sloppy backhand, and the Serb sealed the deal with an unreturnable serve on his first match point of the evening.

The 24-year-old Tipsarevic pulled off the stunner in 3 hours, 6 minutes, despite the fact that Roddick unleashed 27 aces. The solid Serb, who recorded 14 aces of his own, broke Roddick's mighty serve twice, while the American failed to convert once on eight break-point chances.

The 25-year-old former world No. 1 and former U.S. Open champion Roddick reached back-to-back finals here in 2004 and 2005, losing to Roger Federer both times, but has failed to get past the quarterfinals since then. The massive-serving American lost to Frenchman Richard Gasquet in last year's Wimbledon quarters.

Earlier this year, Tipsarevic pushed Federer in a tremendous five-set third- round match at the Australian Open, a match that was ultimately won by the super Swiss at 10-8 in the fifth.

Meanwhile, the second-seeded Nadal dropped the first set against rising 19- year-old Latvian Ernests Gulbis before charging back for a 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 victory on Day 4.

Nadal moved on in just under three hours by breaking Gulbis on three occasions while only being broken once. The Latvian uncorked 16 aces, but also piled up 21 more unforced errors (35-14) than his determined Spanish counterpart.

The 22-year-old Nadal, who is now 14-2 in his last 16 Wimbledon matches, lost to the five-time champion Federer in the last two finals here, while the four- time French Open champion from Spain has beaten Federer in the last three French Open finals, including one earlier this month in Paris.

Nadal leads the ATP with 51 match wins this season, including a current 19- match winning streak and a grass-court title in London just two weeks ago.

The fiery Nadal will face dangerous German Nicolas Kiefer in the round of 32.

An eighth-seeded Gasquet moved on with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over fellow Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, who retired after two sets of play, while ninth- seeded American James Blake, like Roddick, also suffered an early exit, as he blew a two-sets-to-one lead against German Rainer Schuettler, who pulled off his upset in 6-3, 6-7 (8-10), 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 fashion on Court 3. Blake, who is now a dismal 3-11 in his career five-set matches, has never advanced beyond the third round at Wimbledon.

Journeyman Bobby Reynolds is the only American man still standing here.

British crowd favorite Andy Murray, seeded 12th, advanced easily with a 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 spanking of oft-injured Belgian Xavier Malisse. Murray is trying to give Britain its first male champion here since Fred Perry way back in 1936.

Murray will meet former top-five German Tommy Haas in the third round. An unseeded Haas moved by ousting 23rd-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-4, 6-4, 6-3.

In other action involving seeds, No. 14 Paul-Henri Mathieu bested fellow Frenchman Jeremy Chardy 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (7-1); No. 16 Czech Radek Stepanek came all the way back to outlast Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-7 (1-7), 6-7 (3-7), 6-3, 6-1, 6-2; No. 17 Russian Mikhail Youzhny outlasted Italian Stefano Galvani 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Croat Marin Cilic erased 24th-seeded Finn Jarkko Nieminen 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 7-5; No. 25 Russian Dmitry Tursunov brushed aside Brit Chris Eaton 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-4; and a No. 27 Kiefer pasted Argentine Martin Vassallo Arguello 6-0, 6-3, 6-1 on yet another nice weather day in the village of Wimbledon.

Additional second-round wins came for Austrian Jurgen Melzer and Frenchman Arnaud Clement. Melzer took out American Jesse Levine 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.