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  • Roddick and Blake take strides to Quarterfinal clash while other seeds start strong

    6/25/08 7:22 AM | Jonathan Morgan
    - Roddick, Blake, and Tursunov advance on Tuesday

    6 seeded Andy Roddick won a fairly straightforward matchup with Argentina's Eduardo Schwank, but not as easy as the American would have hoped for. Schwank played a fine game of aggresive tennis and even looked fairly competent at net, rarities for an Argentine clay courter. He has the skills to be good on all surfaces in the future this Schwank. Roddick stayed true to his huge serve and forehand game, and it paid through in 3 relatively tight sets.

    Janko Tipsarevic, the wacky Serbian with the tattoos, piercings, and eye goggles, had an easy time over Frenchman Thierry Ascione. Tipsarevic has always got the potential to upset someone or have a great run in some places, but then he'll lose early in others. He will face Roddick in the next round.

    Chris Eaton, the big serve and volley Brit also won today over Boris Pashanski. Traditionalists will love him. He comes behind both first and second serves on every point and surprising Boris, was able to defeat him.

    Dmitry Tursunov, another character, had a 5 set battle with Nicolas Mahut, another serve and volley style player. It was tight the whole way through with many ups and downs, but Tursunov showed his grit and took the 5th.

    Nicolas Almagro, a known grassphobic, beat out fellow clay courter Grannollers in his first round match. Garcia-Lopez, another Spaniard (not really a claycourter, I don't think that anyone that gets double bagelled by Tursunov on clay can be called that) won his match today over South African qualifier Van Der Merwe. He and Almagro play each other next.

    Rainer Schuettler, perhaps trying to turn back the clockhands, had his way with Santiago Ventura. This isn't surprising, considering Ventura is another clay courter who probably couldn't wait to get back home to watch the Euro 08 SF of Spain-Russia, but a win is a win.

    James Blake, the 9 seed had to bail out of a set hole against Christophe Rochus, the taller, 5'7'' brother. After losing the first set, James got himself together to win it in 4, the last 3 rahter straightforward. He plays Schuettler next.

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