Andy Roddick's margin for error had shrunk to the size of the crocodile swimming in sweat on the front of his white baseball cap as Lukasz Kubot stepped up to serve for the match at 5-4 in the second set today. Victimized by Kubot's serve-and-volley style and his own toothless return game for much of the first two sets, Roddick summoned some biting returns and blasted a backhand winner down the line to break back at love and level the set.
The 30th-seeded Roddick rarely won many style points, but snared most of the pivotal points to squeeze out a 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 victory that vaulted him into the Indian Wells third round for the ninth time in 10 career appearances in the desert.
Much of this match was more about Roddick's grit than his game. The 2010 tournament finalist spent time struggling to find his return, barking at himself in disgust between points and watching Kubot, who swept Roddick in straight sets in their lone prior meeting, channel his inner Max Mirnyi in using his expansive reach and anticipation at net to shrink the front court to the size of a hopscotch board.
The 52nd-ranked Pole pounded out a 6-4, 6-2 win over another seismic server, Ivo Karlovic, in the opening round and hardly looked fazed by Roddick's deliveries in the first set. Roddick dumped a double fault into net to donate the first break, punctuating that transgression by splattering his
Babolat racquet to the court. Kubot consolidated at 15, lifting an exquisite backhand half volley inside the line to gain a 5-3 lead. Asserting his net game, Kubot won 14 of 17 trips to the net and hit three times as many winners (18 to 6) in the first set, launching a backhand winner down the line to take the set in 50 minutes.
Leading 2-1 in the second, Roddick squandered triple-break point, whiffing on a Kubot serve on his third break point and when Kubot belted another backhand winner down the line to break for 5-4, the finish line was in sight. The former No. 1 has seen his ranking fall 17 spots since the start of the season, but hasn't lost his love of a good fight. Roddick followed three straight Kubot errors with a backhand return winner down the line for a 5-1 lead in the breaker only to misfire on a couple of horrific forehand errors, the second missing the mark by five feet, as Kubot closed to 5-6. Singer John Legend, sitting in Roddick's box, nodded encouragement and Roddick finally found his forehand, whipping a winner down the line to seal the 59-minute second set.
Gnawing at his nails on the changeover, Roddick leaped landing a backhand pass down the line to break in the nine-minute opener of the final set, but Kubot, who twice took treatment for an apparent hip injury, broke back. A Roddick backhand return hit the top of the tape and eluded a lunging Kubot as he broke for 4-3. Roddick closed the two hour, 39-minute match two games later to set up a third-round clash with Tomas Berdych.
—Richard Pagliaro