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Roddick Makes Loud Exit

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By JOHN PYE, The Associated Press

Published: January 19, 2008

MELBOURNE, Australia - Andy Roddick ran out of ways to vent his anger.

He berated the chair umpire. He cracked his racket. He pulled out of a serve and yelled at the crowd to "shut up." He also reeled off a personal-best 42 aces - three in one game to save match points - but none of it unnerved Philipp Kohlschreiber at the Australian Open.

The 29th-ranked German won 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (9), 6-7 (3), 8-6 in a third-round match that started after 10 p.m. Friday and finished at 2:04 a.m.

"I took his best stuff for five sets and I thought I was going to get him to break or to fold," Roddick said. "I thought if I kept it on him long enough that that would happen. Tonight he played like a great, great player. There's no doubt about that."

Roddick, seeded sixth, produced some impressive numbers, in addition to the aces. He made 72 percent of his first serves and committed only three double-faults. However, he broke his opponent only once.

"The whole match for me was perfect," Kohlschreiber said. "Just amazing, to start the year like this and beating such a good guy is the best thing that has happened to me in tennis."

Kohlschreiber reached the fourth round only before once at 14 previous Grand Slam tournaments, and that ended in a straight-sets loss to Roddick.

For Roddick, this match had the feel almost from the start of his five-hour marathon against Younes El Aynaoui five years ago in a quarterfinal in Australia. Then 20, Roddick won an Open era longest fifth set 21-19 in a match that finished after 2:30 a.m., also under the roof at Rod Laver Arena.

"Yeah, I thought about it," Roddick said.

Roddick went into the tournament after leading the U.S. to its first Davis Cup title since 1995 and winning the Kooyong exhibition tuneup for the third straight time. He left with his quest for a second major to go with his 2003 U.S. Open title still unfulfilled.

"It's rough, yeah, but that's sports, man," Roddick said. "If you don't want an emotional roller coaster, if you want to be serene and kind of chilled out all day, then get a job serving margaritas at the beach.

"When you decide to be a pro athlete you're going to have ups, you're going to have downs, you're going to have extreme highs and extreme lows. That's just the nature of the beast."

In other men's matches, No. 24 Jarkko Nieminen beat Tampa's Mardy Fish 3-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-1 and No. 2 Rafael Nadal beat Gilles Simon 7-5, 6-2, 6-3.

On the women's side, No. 29 Agnieszka Radwanska shocked No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 6-4, No. 5 Maria Sharapova beat Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-0, No. 27 Maria Kirilenko stunned No. 6 Anna Chakvetadze (6) 6-7 (6), 6-1, 6-2 and Casey Dellacqua stopped No. 18 Amelie Mauresmo 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

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