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| June 19, 2007 | Tuesday | Jamadi-us-Sani 03, 1428 |
Roddick stages great escape to lift crown
LONDON, June 18: Andy Roddick staged a great escape to win his fourth Queen's Club trophy in five years with a dramatic 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 win over France's Nicolas Mahut on Sunday.
The American second seed survived a match point deep in the second set tiebreak to wreck Mahut's hopes of landing a debut title.
After winning the most hotly contested final in the event's 29-edition history, Roddick joined Lleyton Hewitt, Boris Becker and John McEnroe as a four-time champion in west London.
More importantly for Roddick, it allowed him to surpass the achievement of his coach Jimmy Connors, who triumphed three times here.
Mahut made his ranking of 106 look like a mathematical error as he outwitted Roddick in the opening set with his acrobatic tactics in front of the net.
The 25-year-old had claimed four seeded scalps en route to the final and as the clock ticked towards the 90-minute mark, he came within one point of adding Roddick to his list of victims.
But the American stood his ground at 7-6 down in the second set tiebreak and Mahut saw his chance of victory disappear as he slapped the ball into the net.
The world No 5 restored order by pocketing the tiebreak 9-7 and despite not finding a way to break the Mahut serve in the entire match, he picked up the top prize after two hours 17 minutes of riveting action by firing his 24th ace to win the final set tiebreak 7-2.
HALLE (Germany): Tomas Berdych went one better than last year when he beat Marcos Baghdatis 7-5, 6-4 in the final of the Halle Open on Sunday.
Berdych, the fourth seed from the Czech Republic, was too consistent for eighth-seeded Cypriot Baghdatis as he wrapped up victory in one hour 20 minutes.
The win gave Berdych his third career ATP title and his first on grass. It was his second successive appearance in the Halle final, after his defeat by Roger Federer 12 months ago.
BIRMINGHAM: Jelena Jankovic finally ended a losing run against Maria Sharapova to claim her first grasscourt title with a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 win in the final of the rain-hit Birmingham Classic on Sunday.
After both players had successfully steered past their semi-final opponents earlier in the day, Jankovic overcame a first-set hiccup to beat the top seed.—Reuters
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