Roddick swept past Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka in straight sets to give the U.S. an opening round victory Sunday in the best-of-five series, pretty much wiping out any final-day drama.
Roddick, ranked sixth in the world, is now 11-0 with a chance to close out a Davis Cup series. If he felt any pressure from teammate Mike Bryan’s guarantee of a Roddick win a day earlier, it didn’t show on the court.
“I was sitting there putting my shoes on and (Bryan) goes, ’I guarantee a victory,”’ Roddick said. “I kind of progressively got tighter and tighter as he was talking. But I guess it would have been easy to blame him if I had lost.
“I guess he ended up looking smart.”
Then again, Bryan wasn’t really going out on a limb with Roddick playing with a 2-1 lead.
This win was emphatic: 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 — and 4-1 for the U.S. Next up for the U.S. is Croatia in the quarterfinals on July 10-12, just after Wimbledon.
Roddick wasn’t overly impressed by his perfect record as a closer.
“In order to clinch, your team has to put you up 2-1,” Roddick said. “I’ve always had a chance to play that fourth match. A lot of it is circumstantial and the way the schedule and draw plays out. I’ve gotten a lot of chances to do that.
“I’ve simplified the way I look at it. You come in and regardless of what the score is — everyone makes a big deal about it and obviously it’s extremely relevant, but at the same time I’ve got to come out and try to win a point each day I play.”
Roddick’s 31st Davis Cup win moved him past Andre Agassi into second place on the U.S. list, 10 behind John McEnroe. That accomplishment made more of an impression.
“I’m kind of a nerd about the history of our sport,” he said. “It was kind of in the back of my mind. There’s probably a few moments in your career where you can sit back and be a little impressed.
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Discuss: Sound off on tennis at Newsvine.com“When you get mentioned with Andre, who I grew up watching ... Andre was always the guy that every one leaned on to come through. To kind of surpass him now is extremely surreal, but it’s definitely one of those fun moments also.”
Dominating with his serve, he faced only one break point during the match and had 14 aces.
The U.S. has won 20 consecutive matches after taking a 2-1 lead. The Americans didn’t have to contend with an absent Roger Federer in this one, since the Swiss star was out with back problems.
U.S. Captain Patrick McEnroe found plenty to be impressed about with Roddick’s game.
“I think he’s improving, which is awesome to see,” McEnroe said. “Obviously he has delivered again in a crucial situation for us.”
James Blake then topped Marco Chiudinelli 6-4, 7-6 (6) in a best-of-three match for the final margin. Blake opted to play even though it wasn’t a live rubber match.
“It’s still the pressure of a Davis Cup,” he said. “You’ve got the big crowd, so I’ll be ready one of these days if there is a live fifth rubber.”
Roddick now has a 21-2 match record at home in the Davis Cup, including nine straight wins. He also breezed by Chiudinelli on Friday.
Bryan’s guarantee after his own doubles victory a day earlier looked rock solid from the start Sunday. Roddick took control when he broke Wawrinka’s serve for a 4-3 lead in the opening set.
The only real drama in the third set came when Roddick was down 0-30 in the final game and it looked like Wawrinka might keep it going. Roddick won the last four points to complete the sweep.
“I made him play every point and he toughened up there from 30-all on on a couple of rallies,” he said. “Any time you’re serving a set out, you don’t want to be down love-30.”
The American foursome then took a celebratory jog with the flag around the court for the 15,118 fans.
Wawrinka, ranked No. 16, has lost each of his three matches with the Swiss trailing 1-2 and trying to stay alive.
“The strategy was to attack him,” Wawrinka said. “When he gives some short ball, you need to come to the net to take care of the ball, to push him a lot.
