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Roddick digs deep to hook date with Fish
2007-01-21
American Andy Roddick dug deep to overcome Mario Ancic in five sets and power into the Australian Open quarter-finals. Roddick, seeded six, won 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4 in just over three hours and will now play American compatriot Mardy Fish. It is Roddick's fourth quarter-final appearance at the Australian Open and comes against an opponent he once shared a house with in his junior tennis days. It was his superior consistency that won him the match against the aggressive Ancic who he now leads 5-0 in their series. He broke Ancic's serve five times and dropped his three times. "Win or lose I had to turn the tables on his aggression," Roddick said. "We've played each other a lot of times and he's improving and he can only get better. I was lucky to get through today." Roddick, with coach Jimmy Connors watching, said it was uncomfortable not being able to dictate the pace of the game. "I felt pretty odd out there. I felt that I was hitting the ball through the court pretty good and he was stepping in," he said. "I think we were both trying to play the same sort of game and it went in momentum shifts." The American power server got the winning service break in the fifth game of the final set, capitalising on mistakes from the Croatian who rushed the net to attack, only to commit two crucial forehand errors for the break. Roddick comfortably served out for the match and held three match points, winning it on his second with a backhand winner on the line. "I was lucky to get that break (in the fifth set), he missed a couple of volleys in that one game and that might have been the difference today," said Roddick. Ancic out-hit Roddick 60 winners to 52, but Roddick's committed far less errors, 19 to Ancic's 33. Unseeded American Mardy Fish was the first player through to the men's singles quarter-finals with a four-set victory, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4), 2-6, 7-5, over Spanish 16th seed David Ferrer earlier on Sunday.
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