Beat the Heat

Coverage

2010

Atlanta Tennis Championships

Beat the Heat

Friday, 23 July 2010 07:00

Beat the Heat

Written by Christina Ward

Survival of the Fittest
Today was the hottest day of the week so far. Xavier Malisse and Illya Marchenko were especially affected by the heat. Both players were listless and mainly worried about keeping the ball in play. After every point they would hide in the shade at the back of the court. The match was close for a straight sets victory, but Malisse was a little more aggressive and Marchenko played an error-filled game at 2-1 in the second set to get broken after taking a medical timeout for the heat. The Belgian won, 6-3. 6-3.

Staying Aggressive
Andy Roddick started off his match against Rajeev Ram with aggressive groundstrokes and Ram was unable to make a dent in Roddick’s service games. In the second set, Roddick played more passively, and his opponent took advantage of that by winning the set in a tiebreak. Roddick was able to save all four break points against his serve, including two in the first game of the third set. Roddick said that the heat caused his left foot to swell a little, but added that it had happened before and is manageable. It was not the cleanest match Roddick ever played, but he played well enough to win and reach the quarterfinals.

Andy gets the win, swollen foot and all

Hometown Frustrations
Court 1 was full to watch Donald Young and Kevin Anderson. The calm and confident Young from the First Round was absent on Thursday. The first set was tight, with both breaking serve once, until Young served at 5-6. Young missed most of his first serves in that game and made a few forehand errors to lose the set 7-5. Anderson was able to overpower the American and force him into many errors. Young was very frustrated for the rest of the match and yelled and threw his racquet a few times. Young was able to save five match points on his serve at 2-5 in the second set, but Anderson converted on his sixth match point when he served for the match.

Anderson has reached his first Tour-level quarterfinal of the year

Surprise Upset
In the biggest upset of the tournament so far, Lukas Lacko beat the No. 3 seed Lleyton Hewitt in straight sets. Hewitt said he had a small injury that has prevented him from practicing the last few days, and it looked like it affected both his serve and his groundstrokes. Hewitt had a first serve percentage of 38 percent and only won 36 percent of his second serve points. He also double-faulted seven times. Lacko was very relaxed and consistent from the baseline and was able to take advantage of Hewitt’s misfiring groundstrokes. Lacko is the 76th ranked player in the world, but with this result, he has reached his fifth quarterfinal of the year.

Lacko broke into the Top 100 for the first time last November

Looking to Friday
Mardy Fish withdrew from doubles on Thursday due to twisting his left ankle late in his second round singles match. It will be interesting to see how Fish is able to recover for his match against Taylor Dent. In the other all-American quarterfinal, John Isner takes on the veteran Michael Russell. Lukas Lacko and Kevin Anderson are both looking to make their first semifinal of the year. Andy Roddick will play Xavier Malisse, whom he beat in the Atlanta final the last time an ATP tournament was held here, in 2001.