Roddick Advances at Delray Beach International Tennis Championships
American Andy Roddick has advanced to the quarterfinals of the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships after defeating Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan in straight sets, 6-4, 7-5. This will be his second quarterfinals for the year and Roddick is currently is ranked 30th in the world. His last quarterfinals were in San Jose in early February where he lost to Istomin, 6-2, 6-4, in their only career match meeting.
"I’m feeling better than I did a couple of matches ago," said Roddick. "I served horrendously and still won and was still able to break serve."
Out of five break chances in Istomin’s favor, he was able to convert just one in the eight game of the first set. Istomin gave up a game on serve in the second when he fell from a 40-15 lead in the 11th game to give Roddick the break.
“I got it done in the end,” Roddick said. “You want to close. I thought the misses I had were positive misses because they were played on my terms. Roddick goes on to play seventh-seeded Kevin Anderson in the quarterfinals who hails from South Africa.
Anderson defeated Xavier Malisse to advance in three sets, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Anderson, who is 6-foot-8, won 77 percent of his first service points; however, his first serve percentage was a mere 55 percent.
“I thought it really gusty, really windy, and it wasn’t easy to get a good rhythm,” Anderson said. “I thought it was tough for both of us because we couldn’t play the kind of tennis we wanted to play.”
Fifth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany also advanced to the quarterfinals. He defeated 57th-ranked Ivan Dodig of Croatia, 6-2, 6-2.
