Roger Federer takes out Andy Roddick in three sets at the Masters Series Madrid on Friday afternoon. He awaits either Andy Murray or Juan Martin Del Potro in the semifinals.
Roger Federer resumed his dominance of Andy Roddick with a 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-1 victory in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open on Thursday afternoon. After losing to Roddick at last year's Masters Series Miami, Federer has now won three straight against the American. But this one was no cakewalk; Federer needed two hours and 11 minutes to set up a semifinal clash with either Andy Murray or Juan Martin Del Potro.
Playing on his worst surface against his least favorite opponent, Roddick made it clear right from the start that he was not going to go away easily. Madrid's No. 6 seed broke for an immediate 2-0 lead, capitalizing on some major struggles on serve for his opponent. Federer, however, got back on serve midway through the set with some stellar returning and he sustained the momentum throughout the remainder of the set. A second break of serve allowed Federer to serve out the opening frame of play at 6-5, and he did just that in routine fashion.
While breaks were not exactly easy to come by in set one, they were non-existent in the second due to impressive serving by both men. Federer improved his serving immensely (76 percent in the set) and lost only six points in six service games without facing a break point. The lone instance of difficulty came when Roddick survived a crucial service game at 4-4 that lasted of nine minutes. Federer had three break chances, but Roddick thwarted all of them--including one with a lunging volley that was followed by Federer shanking a backhand after lining up what should have been a routine passing shot. Three service holds later, a tiebreaker was necessary to decide things.
A Roddick error gave Federer an immediate mini-break and the Swiss promptly won both of his service points--the second with an ace courtesy of a bad bounce--for a 3-0 lead. Roddick stayed in it by taking care of his next two points on serve and he then got on level terms at 3-3 with a huge backhand return that his opponent could not handle. A massive forehand winner gave Roddick a sudden mini-break advantage at 4-3, but he gave it back at 5-3 with a forehand in the net. Federer evened the score at 5-5 with an ace, but double-faulted to give the underdog a chance to close out the 'breaker on his racket. Roddick did it right away with a huge serve-forehand combination. It was a high-quality set that Roddick won, as he fired 13 winners to 11 errors and withstood 20 winners (to 13 errors) by Federer.
Despite having momentum in had, Roddick managed to win just a single point in each of the first two games of the third set. He surrendered serve in surprisingly easy fashion at 0-1, going down 0-40. The world No. 6 saved one break point with a winning backhand, but threw the game away by sending a forehand approach well long. Roddick hand a chance to get back on serve at 1-3, but he missed his lone break chance when he could not return a big Federer forehand. From there, Roddick all but disappeared. He won only a single point in a dismal service game at 1-4 and went down 40-0, three match points, with Federer serving for a place in the semifinals. Federer squandered all three of those match points, but capitalized on his fourth opportunity when Roddick sent a backhand past the baseline.
Federer struck seven more winners than errors (43 to 36) in improving to a dominant 18-2 in the head-to-head series with Roddick. Looking ahead, Federer is a perfect 4-0 against Del Potro but is just 2-6 against Murray. He has lost four in-a-row to the third-ranked Scot.
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