SAN JOSE, CALIF. — It looked hopeless. Andy Roddick, limited to just two matches on the year due to a hamstring tear, was down on the court yet again, this time in the second round of the SAP Open, where he was locked in a battle against Ukrainian-turned-American teen Denis Kudla. Trailing by a set and fighting to stay in the match up 5-4 in the second, Roddick had chased a Kudla groundstroke into the corner before crashing to the ground. He held his head in his hands, seemingly in agony, and a hush fell over the HP Pavilion crowd as fans feared the worst. He grunted in obvious pain as officials scurried to his aid, eventually settling the former No. 1 into a linesman”s chair.
It was soon apparent that the 29-year-old had injured his right ankle. Few imagined that he would be able to finish the match. But after a lengthy delay, the Texan was on his feet again, this time sporting lace-up ankle support.
“I was pretty shocked,” said the No. 203-ranked Kudla, a qualifier who was facing Roddick for the first time. “First reaction, I thought that was it. I didn’t really want to win the match like that.”
“When I first did it, I knew there was a distinct possibility that that was probably it,” said Roddick, who was playing his first match since Jan. 19, when he retired against Lleyton Hewitt at the Australian Open.
Quite frankly, it should have been. Kudla held serve at love to knot the match at 5-all, but subsequently squandered several opportunities to take advantage of Roddick’s predicament and put the match away. The 19-year-old allowed three break-point chances to slip away in Roddick’s next service game (he converted only one of 13 on the night), casino and in the tiebreaker missed an easy overhead at 4-4, followed by a double fault. His veteran opponent, though far from 100 percent, pounced on the opportunity, bum ankle and all.
“Probably the best thing I did was just exist out there,” explained Roddick, a three-time SAP Open winner. “I stayed out there and did what I could. I think he let it get away from him a little bit. I don’t think it’s as much about what I did from there besides just staying out there.”
Kudla would have another opportunity to seal the match. He jumped out to a 2-0 advantage with an early break in the third set, but the errors began to mount as Roddick worked his way back into the match, eventually closing out a gutsy 6-7(5), 7-6(5), 6-4 comeback.
“It just got away from me,” said Kudla, who grew up watching Roddick’s rise to the top of the sport. “I kind of pressed a little too much on a couple of shots. I just lost a great opportunity to win the match.”
“That”s what he”s made of right there,” Roddick’s coach, Larry Stefanki, told Inside Tennis. “The old diesel came through in the end. It was a slow start. He hasn”t played a lot of matches. But that’s what he’s made of. That”s why he”s won 600 matches. He’s a great competitor. He doesn’t want to lose. He’ll do anything to win.”
“When you first go down, you don’t know how it’s going to feel until you take those first couple of steps,” reflected Roddick, now the third-ranked American man at No. 17. “Unfortunately, it’s become all too familiar recently. I didn’t want to stop though. I’m really sick of doing that.”
Roddick, who finished with 14 aces in the two-hour/42-minute contest, kept a notable streak alive: he has never lost to an American teen in his professional career.
