WIMBLEDON, England (AP)—Andy Roddick powered into the fourth round of Wimbledon on Friday with a four-set victory over Philipp Kohlschreiber.
The fifth-seeded American served 28 aces Friday to beat the German 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-3 on Court 1.
Roddick, a three-time Wimbledon finalist, broke four times and saved all seven break points against him to set up a match against Yen-Hsun Lu of Taiwan.
Yet there were moments against Kohlschreiber when Roddick could have allowed himself to get distracted by frustration.
Indeed, there was a time, not all that long ago, when he probably would have.
“You used to see,” said Roddick’s coach, Larry Stefanki, “negativity carry over and linger for a few games.”
Not anymore. Roddick let the second set slip away against his 29th-seeded opponent, then quickly regrouped to reach the second week at the All England Club.
“I’ve done a good job of not saying a word out there this whole tournament, just going about my business the right way,” Roddick said, “so I just tried to play the next point.”
Leading 5-4 in the second set, Roddick got to love-40 on Kohlschreiber’s serve. But Roddick frittered away all three of those set points, then lost the last three points of the tiebreaker, too. Did he let that bother him? No, he went out and broke to open the third set.
Then, still nursing that lead late in the third, Roddick badly missed a forehand wide, an unforced error he greeted with a growl. But that was it. Instead of losing his focus, he tightened it, winning 15 of the next 16 points. Later, on his first match point, Roddick sprinted forward and dived to try to reach a volley, but netted the shot. Five minutes later, he blew a second match point by missing a backhand. He didn’t flinch, though, and eventually ended things on match point No. 3 with an ace at 137 mph.
“He’s done such a better job over the last year of letting things go, and that’s what great players learn to do: They don’t let it bother them to the point of where it carries over. It’s a clean slate. It’s over. Nothing you can do about it,” Stefanki said. “Easier said than done.”
Stefanki believes that get-over-it-and-move-on attitude stems, at least in part, from the way Roddick handled his emotions during the 2009 Wimbledon final against Roger Federer. Roddick nearly took a 2-0 lead in sets, wound up trailing 2-1 instead, then forced a fifth set before losing it 16-14.
“He made a huge step last year against Federer, and now, I think, he’s learned that he’s never out of it,” Stefanki said. “Against the best player, maybe, of all time, to be able to … come back and say, ‘No, no, no, it’s not bothering me; I’m back to square one and playing every point as hard as I can’— that match for him, mentally, is helping now, a year later.”
Seeking his first Wimbledon title at age 27, Roddick has lost three finals at the grass-court Grand Slam tournament to Federer, and they are on track for a semifinal meeting next week.