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Andy Roddick wins China tennis Open
2008-09-28
BEIJING (AFP) - Andy Roddick held off a fierce challenge from Israeli underdog Dudi Sela to win the China Open final Sunday, his third ATP title of the year. Big-serving Roddick, the second seed at the 524,000-dollar Beijing tournament, overcame 92-ranked Sela, playing in his first ATP final, 6-4, 6-7 (6-8), 6-3. Pushed throughout by his unfancied opponent, Roddick served for the match at 6-4 in the second set tie-break but Sela played a gentle pick-up shot at the net to take the point, recovering to win 8-6. In the third and deciding set, Sela, who showed a willingness to come in throughout the match, continued to impress with the range of his shot-making, but could not force the break from Roddick. Instead it was the world number eight who made the crucial breakthrough in the sixth game and despite further scares, he took the set 6-3 in a match lasting two hours. Earlier, both players had started the match strongly, with neither conceding a point on serve until the fourth game, but Roddick forced a break in the following game. Sela, playing his first ATP final, fended off three set points on his own serve at 5-3 down but Roddick, who won 100 percent of his first serves in the opener, made no mistake on his own serve. In the second set the American broke Sela to go 3-2 up but amid roars of encouragement from the crowd, Sela broke back immediately, taking advantage of some erratic volleying by the American. In the women's final later Sunday, top seed and 2007 runner-up Jelena Jankovic will take on Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova, playing her third China Open final. Fourth seed Kuznetsova, who won the title in 2006 and finished runner-up in 2004, leads Jankovic 4-2 in head-to-heads. If Jankovic wins the 600,000-dollar women's tournament, she will move to within a handful of points of world number one Serena Williams. In the men's doubles final, Australia's Stephen Huss and Britain's Ross Hutchins beat Australian Ashley Fisher and Bobby Reynolds, from the United States, 7-5, 6-4.
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