Americans remain alive in all five draws
The Fourth of July is hardly a holiday in Great Britain, but in a sporting tribute the All England Club filled Centre Court with Americans on Wednesday. All four scheduled matches featured U.S. players.
RODDICK GETS GASQUET IN QUARTERS
WIMBLEDON, England -- The Fourth of July is hardly a holiday in Great Britain, but in a sporting tribute the All England Club filled Centre Court with Americans on Wednesday. All four scheduled matches featured U.S. players.
Andy Roddick displayed the independent American spirit as well as anyone, besting Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (6) in a fourth-round match continued from Tuesday. The 24-year-old American, down 1-4 in the third set and love-5 in the tiebreaker, rallied famously.
Roddick has now won 18 consecutive tiebreakers, a remarkable achievement.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus
Venus Williams reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since the 2005 U.S.Open after she beat Maria Sharapova in straight sets.
STAT OF THE DAY
Marcelo Melo,
Andre Sa
RODDICK RELIEVED
Meanwhile, Venus Williams floored No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals. At the same time, both top-seeded doubles teams advanced. Bob and Mike Bryan, the pride of Camarillo, Calif., defeated the Great Britain duo of Richard Bloomfield and Jonathan Marray 6-2 6-2, 7-6 (4). American Lisa Raymond and Australian partner Samantha Stosur took out Sania Mirza and Shahar Peer 6-0, 6-7 (4), 6-1.
In the second round of mixed doubles, Bob Bryan and Stosur beat Martin Garcia and Paola Suarez in straight sets.
Roddick began the day with a one-set lead and promptly served out the second set. Jimmy Connors, Roddick's coach, was quite pleased.
"I like what goes on in here now," Connors said, tapping his head. "He's being patient enough to wait for his chance to force the action. That's what I like the most."
Connors said Roddick was handling the frustrating rain delays with aplomb.
"I like his attitude and his eagerness to play," Connors said. "Coming here under the radar is not a bad position. Everybody talks about Federer and Nadal. Now Andy's in a quarterfinal and the ears begin to perk up."
In recent days, Roddick has probably spent more time sharpening his vocabulary than his tennis game. He's been playing a lot of Scrabble with Connors in the locker room during rain delays. Connors reports that, because he has failed to reach 100 points, Roddick has been winning.
"The things that you love about Wimbledon with the tradition ended up making it tough this time," Roddick said. "You're sitting in the locker room the whole time knowing if it clears you could be on the court in 20 minutes. That's quite a prospect to carry on for three and four days.
"The boredom takes over. We all start getting a little loopy."
Now, Roddick's through to the quarterfinals, where he'll meet Richard Gasquet, a 6-4, 6-3 6-4 winner over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The winner will likely face No. 1 seed Roger Federer in the semifinals. Federer, who plays Juan Carlos Ferrero, has won 13 of 14 matches against Roddick. Three of those losses have come at Wimbledon -- in the 2003 semifinals and the championship finals in 2004 and 2005. The most recent was a catastrophic 6-4, 6-0, 6-2 flameout in the semifinals of the Australian Open back in January.
"Positive out of it?" Roddick said when the subject came up on Wednesday. "No. Yeah, it's something positive. It's not going to get any worse. I'm going to stick with what I've been doing. I'm not going to talk about it till it's here.
"I'm not worried about Roger. I'm not worried for him. I think he'll do OK. I'm going to spare the tears on that one."
