Thursday, July 24, 2008

Roddick 'doesn’t feel comfortable' on court

TORONTO (AP) -Something is wrong with Andy Roddick.

The sixth-ranked Roddick dropped a 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 decision to Croatia's Marin Cilic at the $2.6-million Rogers Cup on Thursday. Following the loss, the American said he felt a bit off.

"Something doesn't feel comfortable,'' he said. "I keep feeling if I get a couple, three, four matches into a tournament I'll be all right.


"I'm not able to do that. It was pretty ordinary out there today.''

Roddick is 28-8 in matches this season, including titles in San Jose and Dubai. He endured his worst Wimbledon loss last month, falling to Janko Tipsarevic in the second round.

His struggles are in more than one area of his game.

"It's a little bit across the board,'' said Roddick, who won the Rogers Cup in 2003. "(My) forehand is just not doing anything. I'm missing it. That's the one that I need to click right now.''

His frustration was obvious from the onset of his match Thursday, culminating in an odd exchange with the umpire.

With Cilic leading 4-2 in the third set, a fan yelled something just before Roddick went to serve. Roddick yelled something back, then followed through with a service winner.

In a gracious move, Roddick asked to replay the point, figuring it should have been a let, and Cilic complied.

"It was obvious that I had said something, so I gave the guy the let just because I probably would have accepted the same,'' he said.

Roddick then served an ace, which the umpire ruled out - drawing Roddick's ire. He successfully challenged the call, but was still upset.

"It's almost impossible to be 100 percent sure on balls that miss on the far side of the court when they're traveling 130 miles an hour,'' he said. "Then, to do it after, you know, someone had given something back, I thought was just unnecessary.

"I just thought that was pretty bush league.''

Still, Roddick didn't blame the officiating for his latest setback.

"At that point I was down a break, so it didn't really affect the match at all,'' he said. "That's certainly not the reason for the loss.

"I think my play was definitely the reason for that.''

Whatever is ailing him, Roddick said he's going to play through it.

"What can you do? You go out there,'' he said. "You're not going to fix anything on the bench, that's for sure. You try to deal with it. All it takes is one event, couple matches, to turn things around. It's happened a million times.

"You know, hopefully it'll happen next week.''




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