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Roddick to play Hewitt in Masters semis
Andy Roddick is back in the semifinals of the ATP Masters Cup Championships for the second straight year, and he's looking for a better result this time.
Roddick hit 15 aces Friday to become the first player since 1998 with more than 1,000 in a season in a 7-6 (4), 6-3 victory over Guillermo Coria of Argentina, putting him against former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals.
Roddick lost to top-seeded Roger Federer in the semis last year and expects a highly competitive meeting with Hewitt, who is 3-1 against the American.
"I'm going to be taking big blows and he's going to be taking them and throwing them back at me," Roddick said. "I would imagine it would be a pretty fun match to watch from a fan's perspective. We're totally similar in some ways, we're different in others. I think it makes for a good matchup."
Federer went through the round-robin with a 3-0 record and is the defending champion. He got a day off Friday to prepare for his semifinal match against Russian Marat Safin, who beat Tim Henman of Great Britain, 6-2, 7-6 (2) to capture the final semifinal spot against Federer.
Safin's victory meant the top four seeds reached the semifinals for the first time since Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker, Ivan Lendl and Andre Agassi reached them.
Hewitt high-fived a fan to celebrate a great point in his 6-2, 6-1 victory over French Open champion Gaston Gaudio. He expects a tougher time against Roddick.
"Obviously, he's got a lot of firepower out there," Hewitt said. "He's got a massive serve and a huge forehand. You've just got to try to make him hit that one extra ball as well, and really make him move around as much as possible and get as many of his big shots back as possible."
Roddick enters the match ranked No. 2 in the world and Hewitt is No. 3. Hewitt could take the No. 2 rank if he wins the tournament but that's not on either players mind.
"Lleyton and I have both been No. 1 and I think we'd prefer that instead," Roddick said. "I'm just happy to be here playing good tennis, not counting points to see who is going to be No. 2."
With 1,008 aces, Roddick is just the third player to surpass 1,000 in a season since the ATP Tour started tracking statistics in 1991. Goran Ivanisevic did it four times, including a record 1,477 six years ago. Pete Sampras had 1,011 aces in 1993.
Safin jumped into command early and held on when Henman tried to come back in the second set.
"I lost a bit of concentration, I was waiting for his mistakes and I thought I could break him any time I wanted to," Safin said. "I was wrong. He had a couple of chances to break me and I almost lost the set."
Henman said he started too late.
"Early on, it was a struggle," Henman said. "In the second set, I gave myself a chance to get something going but unfortunately, it didn't happen."
Coria finished 0-3 in the round-robin playing his first tournament since shoulder surgery in August.
His serves were routinely under 100 mph ¡ª in stark contract to Roddick's big offerings. Roddick already was assured of the semifinals before beating Coria, making it difficult to maintain his intensity.
"It was a little weird because I didn't know what Guillermo would bring to the table," Roddick said. "But we are here at the Masters Cup but this was a little different feeling than the other matches." Despite going winless in the tournament, Coria was pleased with his physical progress. "I leave the tournament very happy," Coria said. "Obviously, there are some things that I have to get there, like my serve is not there, and some points, the way I play those points is not there. But to come here with one week of preparation and play like this gives me a lot of confidence for next year." |
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