Andy Roddick plays Marcos Baghdatis in the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International.
Roddick put in a solid performance to see off the dangerous Aleksandr Dolgopolov 6-4, 6-1. Dolopolov likes to go for his shots but Roddick was well prepared and the errors mounted pretty quickly for the Ukrainian.
“The scouting report was that he was aggressive to the point of psychosis at times. He came out the first six games and I didn’t really do much wrong,” Roddick said.
“If someone decides that they’re going to try to hit a winner from whatever ball they get on the first shot, if they convert there’s only so much you can do. It was my plan to make him have to come up with those kinds of shots for the better part of a couple of hours and it caught up to him a little bit. Then when it caught up to him it got away from him pretty quickly.”
Roddick should face his first real test of the week against Baghdatis who is determined to get back in the top ten and spent the off season getting in the best shape he's ever been in.
The Cypriot is a popular figure down under and Roddick will have memories of losing to him at the Australian Open five years ago. However Roddick still leads their head-to-head 2-1 although they have not played since 2007.
Roddick may drop a set but it will be a surprise if he goes out here. He has been serving extremely well this week, hitting 20 aces already and that could prove the key on the fast, bouncy Brisbane surface.
