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October 13, 2010

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Roddick has it easy, Isner through

ANDY Roddick reached the second round of the Shanghai Rolex Masters at the Qizhong Tennis Center after Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany retired ill yesterday.

Kohlschreiber stopped while trailing 3-6, 1-2 after missing an easy overhead, shanking a forehand wide, and double-faulting to drop his serve.

Roddick, in and out of the top-10 rankings for the last two months, is looking to avoid falling out of the year-end top 10 for the first time in nine seasons. The 11th-ranked Roddick reached the Japan Open quarterfinals last week, his first tournament since an early exit at the US Open.

"I thought I hit the ball well in what we did play today. I started to hit the ball pretty well last week, also," Roddick said. "I don't feel like I'm fighting myself out there. After the Open, I was able to train the way I want to for the first time in a while."

Fellow American John Isner fought off five match points in the two tiebreakers to beat Polish qualifier Lukasz Kubot 4-6, 7-6 (9), 7-6 (7) in 2 hours, 50 minutes. Isner served 24 aces, but failed to break Kubot once.

Next up for Isner is third-seeded Roger Federer, who received a bye in the first round.

In the only second-round match yesterday, Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic defeated Tommy Robredo of Spain 6-0, 6-4, despite the fact he's been battling stomach problems for the past two days.

"I felt quite weak so I was trying to play a little more aggressively, play really risky shots just to try to hang in there," Berdych said. "I was really lucky I don't know what could have happened if I lost the second set."

Seventh-seeded Berdych could meet Roddick next if the American gets past Spain's Guillermo Garcia-Lopez.

David Ferrer of Spain, runner-up at the China Open in Beijing to Novak Djokovic, rolled past Michael Llodra of France, 7-6 (2), 6-1, while Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia struggled to beat another Chinese wildcard, 308th-ranked Zhang Ze 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic beat Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev 6-3, 6-4, and Spain's Daniel Gimeno-Traver rallied past Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 before rain shortened the schedule.

Meanwhile, world No. 2 Djokovic is buoyant after winning last week in Beijing.

"I don't think it's going to be a big disadvantage because I did it last year when I won Beijing and played semifinals here. I felt good. So there is no reason for me to believe that it's going to affect my game," said Djokovic.


 

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