MELBOURNE, Australia - Andy Roddick thought he’d get it right at the Australian Open.
Stung by a first-round exit at the U.S. Open last August, Roddick skipped the Masters Cup in November to give himself extra weeks to peak for the season’s first major.
What he did not figure on, while running miles and pumping iron, was a guy like Marcos Baghdatis stepping into serves and smacking returns past him with mesmerizing regularity
Baghdatis, a live-wire former junior world champion from Cyprus, hit 63 winners in a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4 fourth-round win Sunday, advancing to a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time, where No. 7 Ivan Ljubicic awaits.
When one return winner zipped by him in the last set, Roddick turned to the crowd and asked: “What can I do?”
“It’s disappointing when you feel like you’ve put in the work and there are no unanswered questions in my eyes as far as preparation,” he said. “You’re kind of left searching a bit — that’s an uneasy feeling.
“I don’t know if it’s easy just to shrug off.”
Roddick’s loss left fourth-seeded David Nalbandian as the highest-ranked man in the bottom half of the draw, and a likely opponent for top-seeded Roger Federer in the final.
(keep reading - Source Msnbc.com)
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