London, England (Sports Network) – Four-time champion Andy Roddick posted a hard-fought second-round victory Tuesday at the $1 million Aegon Championships tennis event, a grass-court Wimbledon tuneup.
The third-seeded Roddick went the distance to get past quality Spanish lefthander Feliciano Lopez 7-6 (7-2), 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 at The Queen’s Club. The former world No. 1 American star needed 2 hours, 13 minutes to advance, which he did despite a 35-ace onslaught from Lopez. Roddick settled for 15 aces on Day 2.
Lopez could manage only one service break, compared to two from the American winner.
The former U.S. Open champion Roddick captured this event from 2003-05 and again in 2007.
Roddick had been out of action since suffering a knee injury in Rome four weeks ago. He halted a four-match losing streak on Tuesday, with his last victory coming at Indian Wells nearly three months ago in March.
The 28-year-old Roddick’s third-round opponent will be 15th-seeded South African Kevin Anderson or fellow American Donald Young.
A pair of Argentine stars posted first-round wins, as ninth-seeded David Nalbandian handled Ukrainian Illya Marchenko 6-3, 6-4 and 12th-seeded former U.S. Open champ Juan Martin del Potro pasted Uzbekistan’s Denis Istomin 6-4, 6-2. The oft-injured Nalbandian, a former Wimbledon runner-up, played his first tennis in three months on Tuesday, while this marks del Potro’s first grass-court action in two years, as he missed most of last season after
undergoing wrist surgery.
Another second-round American victor was 13th-seeded reigning Queen’s Club titlist Sam Querrey, who improved to 2-0 for the week with a 7-6 (8-6), 5-7, 6-3 win over former Australian Open runner-up Rainer Schuettler of Germany.
Querrey beat Mardy Fish in last year’s all-American finale here.
In other second-round play, Brit James Ward upset fourth-seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, fifth-seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga trounced German Michael Berrer 6-0, 6-1 in a mere 47 minutes, and seventh-
seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco vaulted past France’s Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 6-3. Ward will battle Querrey here on Thursday.
In other opening-round action involving seeds, No. 14 Serb Janko Tipsarevic beat Slovenian Blaz Kavcic 6-4, 6-4 and the aforementioned Anderson topped 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 7-6 (7-2).
Additional first-round wins came for American Michael Russell, Belgian Xavier Malisse, France’s Adrian Mannarino, Czech Radek Stepanek, and Aussie Matthew Ebden.
This week’s top seeds are French Open champion Rafael Nadal and Australian Open runner-up and 2009 Queen’s Club titlist Andy Murray. The great Nadal is fresh off his second straight French Open championship and is also the
reigning Wimbledon and U.S. Open champ.
Nadal will open against the qualifier Ebden here on Wednesday, while Murray will meet Malisse.
The top-eight seeds here all received opening-round byes.
This week’s winner will take home $113,000.
Author: Chief Editor
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