The North American may not have been at full strength and the South American may have had the crowd support, but for Uruguay's Pablo Cuevas, it was still never going to be easy to beat Andy Roddick, the perennial American No. 1 and defending Key Biscayne champion.
That he did, by a 6-4, 7-6 (4) score, is more telling of Cuevas, particularly in his ability to achieve something he'd never done: defeat a Top 10 opponent. Of course, this is a harsh loss for Roddick, who I'm almost certain will fall outside the Top 10 because of it. But the veteran has one overarching goal when he competes: to be in the best position to win another Grand Slam title. Whether he ever gets No. 2 is up for debate, but it's unfair to correlate a result in Miami to his play at the majors.
They call this tournament the "South American Slam," and maybe this will be Pablo Cuevas' major achievement of his career; if so, he should be proud of how he accomplished it. Leading by a set but down 4-5, 0-30, on serve, Cuevas had everything to lose if he let his edge slip away—Roddick has incurred some surprise defeats in the past, but he's escaped many others by keeping tough matches alive and eventually imposing his game. Cuevas refused to let the outcome hang in the balance for too long. He won the next four points to level the second set, then, after a comfortable Roddick hold, held at love to force a tiebreak.
Up 3-2 in the overtime session, Cuevas was in danger of letting a 3-0 lead vanish. But his running, down-the-line forehand near the net, which curved inward and downward to find its small target, was additional evidence of Cuevas' intentions: that he wasn't afraid to win. Another pressure-packed moment faced Cuevas minutes later: a match point. Cuevas possesses a lovely one-handed backhand, but so do many other players, who, to borrow from golf, use it for show, not dough. Cuevas was smart during Roddick's precipice: he didn't go for too much, but also wasn't passive, keeping Roddick pinned back with his strokes. A Roddick forehand soon found the net, and the man with the beautiful backhand had his most beautiful victory.
—Ed McGrogan