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Roddick Leads U.S. Past Switzerland

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The Associated Press

Published: March 9, 2009

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. - The United States turned to Andy Roddick to put away another Davis Cup, and he delivered - as usual.

Roddick swept past Switzerland's Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets to give the U.S. an opening-round victory Sunday in the best-of-five series, pretty much wiping out any final-day drama.

Roddick, ranked sixth in the world, is now 11-0 with a chance to close out a Davis Cup series. If he felt any pressure from teammate Mike Bryan's guarantee of a Roddick win a day earlier, it didn't show on the court.

"I was sitting there putting my shoes on and Bryan goes, 'I guarantee a victory,'" Roddick said. "I kind of progressively got tighter and tighter as he was talking. But I guess it would have been easy to blame him if I had lost.

"I guess he ended up looking smart."

Then again, Bryan wasn't going out on a limb with Roddick playing with a 2-1 lead.

This win was emphatic: 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 - and 4-1 for the U.S. Next up for the U.S. is Croatia in the quarterfinals July 10-12, just after Wimbledon.

Roddick wasn't overly impressed by his perfect record as a closer. "In order to clinch, your team has to put you up 2-1," he said. "I've always had a chance to play that fourth match. A lot of it is circumstantial and the way the schedule and draw plays out. I've gotten a lot of chances to do that."

Roddick's 31st Davis Cup win moved him past Andre Agassi into second place on the U.S. list, 10 behind John McEnroe.
James Blake of Tampa then topped Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 7-6 (6) in a best-of-three match for the final margin.

AGASSI TO PLAY CHAMPIONS: Andre Agassi, 39, will make his return to competitive tournament tennis by participating in the 30-and-over Outback Champions Series event at Surprise, Ariz., in October.

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