Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Roddick ousted after beating Federer

   Andy Roddick went from elation to elimination in less than 24 hours.
   After beating Roger Federer for only the third time in 24 career matches, the 31st-seeded Roddick lost to No. 21 Juan Monaco of Argentina 7-5, 6-0 Tuesday in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne, Fla. Monaco won 10 of the last 11 games.
   Tenth-seeded Serena Williams, a five-time champion in Key Biscayne and the reigning Bank of the West titlist at Stanford, fell to fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-4 in the quarterfinals.  
   Both Roddick, a three-time SAP Open champion in San Jose, and Monaco had won 6-4 in the third set Monday night. Roddick also strained his right hamstring in the Australian Open in January and sprained his right ankle in the SAP Open in February.
   "There are a lot of positives out of this week," Roddick told reporters. "I feel healthy. I played matches, and I was running hard. My lack of any sort of fitness (regimen) on my leg is apparent, but that's something that is a matter of work. It's not a matter of health. That's something that's in my control. I just didn't have it physically. I got to about 4-all, and I'm out of shape. That's it."
   Monaco will meet eighth-seeded Mardy Fish on Thursday, Monaco's 28th birthday, in the quarterfinals. Fish, who's scheduled to play two home matches for the Sacramento Capitals of World TeamTennis on July 12 and 13, outlasted 12th-seeded Nicolas Almagro of Spain 6-3, 6-7 (2), 6-3.
   "For sure, this is by far the best I've played all year," said Fish, who hadn't won consecutive matches since reaching the Tokyo semifinals last October.
   Fish must reach the semifinals, matching his result in last year's Sony Ericsson Open, to avoid dropping in the rankings. He soon could fall out of the top 10 and be replaced by No. 10 John Isner as the top American. Isner made his professional debut in 2007 in the Sacramento area, winning a Futures title.
   Top-seeded Bob and Mike Bryan, the 1998 NCAA doubles champions from Stanford, dominated Daniele Bracciali of Italy and Juan Sebastian Cabal of Colombia 6-3, 6-1 in the quarterfinals. The Bryans, the identical twin sons of Capitals coach Wayne Bryan, won Key Biscayne in 2007 and 2008.
   U.S. Davis Cup team named -- U.S. Davis Cup captain Jim Courier named Fish, Isner and the top-ranked Bryans to the team that will face France in the quarterfinals, April 6-8 on red clay in Monte Carlo.
   France will counter with No. 6 Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, No. 14 Gael Monfils, No. 33 Julien Benneteau and No. 43 Michael Llodra.
   Tennis Channel will televise the best-of-five-match series live at 3 a.m. PDT on April 6 (two singles matches), 5 a.m. on April 7 (one doubles match) and 2 a.m. on April 8 (reverse singles matches).
   The United States is 8-7 against France. The Americans' only win in France came in the 1982 final in Grenoble.   If the U.S. wins next month, it will travel to either Spain or Austria for the Sept. 14-16 semifinals.
   Sac State men take sole lead -- In a match for sole possession of first place in the Big Sky Conference, the host Sacramento State men defeated Eastern Washington 4-3 indoors for their 23rd consecutive league victory.
   Javier Millan, Sac State's only senior, overcame a 5-0 deficit in the first set to beat James Russell 7-6 (6), 6-4 at No. 2 singles and give the Hornets an insurmountable 4-2 lead. Sac State freshman Sean Kolar then lost in three sets at No. 4 singles.
   Sac State (5-10, 4-0), which has four conference matches remaining, will try to win its fourth straight Big Sky Tournament title next month at the Gold River Racquet Club in the Sacramento area. Eastern Washington dropped to 9-7 and 3-1.
   College rankings -- The Stanford men and women remained in the top 10 in the new Intercollegiate Tennis Association rankings. The women fell two places to No. 6, and the men rose two spots to No. 8.
   Other rankings of Northern California teams and players:
   Men's team -- No. 12 Cal; No. 31 Santa Clara.
   Men's singles -- No. 15 Artem Ilyushin (Granite Bay), Mississippi State; No. 25 Ryan Thacher, Stanford; No. 37 Ben McLachlan, Cal; No. 39 Carlos Cueto, Cal; No. 76 Nick Andrews (Folsom), Cal; No. 84 Bradley Klahn, Stanford; No. 107 Thai Tu, USF; No. 111 Kyle Dandan, Santa Clara.
   Men's doubles -- No. 3 Andrews and Christoffer Konigsfeldt, Cal; No. 9 Klahn and Thacher, Stanford; No. 33 Cueto and McLachlan, Cal; No. 43 George Coupland and Ilyushin, Mississippi State; No. 53 John Morrissey and Thacher, Stanford.        
   Women's team -- No. 34 Saint Mary's; No. 59 Sac State.
   Women's singles -- No. 3 Nicole Gibbs, Stanford; No. 4 Mallory Burdette, Stanford; No. 5 Jana Juricova, Cal; No. 14 Zsofi Susanyi, Cal; No. 20 Denise Dy (San Jose), Washington; No. 38 Katie Le, Santa Clara; No. 45 Stacey Tan, Stanford; No. 53 Tayler Davis (San Jose), Cal; No. 59 Ellen Tsay (Pleasanton), Stanford; No. 72 Anett Schutting, Cal; No. 82 Jenny Jullien, Saint Mary's; No. 90 Annie Goransson, Cal.
   Women's doubles -- No. 3 Burdette and Gibbs, Stanford; No. 23 Goransson and Schutting, Cal; No. 41 Juricova and Susanyi, Cal; No. 43 Tan and Tsay, Stanford.

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