The BNP Paribas Open had long been a blemish on Andy Roddick’s impressive North American resume. The World No. 8 had played in 14 different North American ATP World tournaments during his career and reached the final in each of them – with the exception of Indian Wells and the now-defunct Scottsdale event.
After three semi-final finishes, the top American finally went one better at the year’s first ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament, defeating World No. 7 Robin Soderling of Sweden 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 on Saturday afternoon to be among the last two players standing on the final Sunday.
“This is probably the only real big tournament in North America that I haven't won, so I definitely would love to win it,” said the 27 year old, who has won four titles in seven finals at the three other ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events on North American soil.
Roddick and Soderling had each entered the semi-final match without dropping a set at the 2010 BNP Paribas Open, and the American needed just one break of serve to take the opening set. He went up an early service break in the second, only to see Soderling come back to win six of the final seven games.
Despite his surge to close the second set, Soderling admitted afterwards: “I felt I was still waiting for my best tennis. We played two sets and the conditions were a little bit tough. I felt that I was playing a little bit better at the end of the second set, but then he broke me. It wasn't the greatest match, but I tried everything. He came up with some good shots at the end.”
The third set began in similar fashion to the second, with Soderling erasing his opponent’s 2-0 lead, but Roddick grabbed the winning break in the sixth game before proceeding to close out the match on serve.
“I knew I was returning real well, so I thought this might be the rare occasion where that would be the thing that won it for me,” said Roddick. “I think ultimately the fact that I put a lot of pressure on his service games ended up helping. I normally don't need two breaks to win a set, but today I did.”
With Ivan Ljubicic prevailing in a third-set tie-break against defending champion Rafael Nadal earlier in the day, it marked the first time since 1984 that both semi-final matches had gone to three sets.
Roddick, who leads the 31-year-old Croatian 7-3 in the head-to-head series, said about his opponent’s performance against Nadal: “He did a great job of serving big points today. It seemed like he came up with a big serve every time. It felt like Rafa was controlling the rallies once he got back to neutral, but he was having trouble getting it back to neutral. It's gonna be a challenge to do that also for me. It's just gonna be a matter of who can convert their chances.”
Roddick is attempting to become the first American male to win the BNP Paribas Open title since Andre Agassi defeated Pete Sampras in the 2001 final. His coach, Larry Stefanki, also captured the title in nearby La Quinta in February 1985 (d. Pate).
The Austin, Texas, improves to a circuit-best 20-3 mark following Saturday’s win. Roddick will be contesting his third final of the season, after winning in Brisbane (d. Stepanek) and finishing runner-up in San Jose (l. to Verdasco). Of Roddick’s 28 tour-level titles, 18 have come in North America.
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