The Graveyard was buried as the All England Club continued its renovation by eliminating the old Graveyard of Champions (Court 2) to construct the new Court 3. Andy Roddick took the remodeling cause to Court 1 today. Pounding his serve like a man intent on embedding a yellow felt frame on the green back wall, Roddick ripped 30 aces to roll into the second round with a 6-4, 7-6 (6), 6-3 sweep of Andreas Beck.
The celebratory smile Roddick exchanged with wife Brooklyn Decker and coach Larry Stefanki after wrapping up the two hour, 15-minute win revealed how much the match mattered. It was the world No. 10’s first win at a major since defeating Robin Haase at the Australian Open in January.
The three-time Wimbledon finalist understands Andre Agassi’s adage that, “You can’t win the title in the first round, but you can lose it,” as well as anyone, having suffered opening-round exits in three of his last four tournaments. But he warmed up for Wimbledon by reaching the Queen’s Club semifinal and was clinical on serve today. Masterfully mixing it up, Roddick drove darts into each corner of the box and subdued Beck with biting body blows in permitting just 10 points on his first serve.
Launching himself into the court in firing four straight aces for a 5-4 lead, Roddick sealed the 36-minute first set when Beck hooked a mid-court forehand beyond the baseline.
The 25-year-old German qualifier is just three years younger than Roddick, but has the fresh-faced, youthful appearance that recalls Christopher Robin running around the Hundred Acre Wood. Beck entered the match with just one Wimbledon win to his credit and a 7-10 career mark at majors, making him an ideal opponent for Roddick, who was eager to erase the memory of his 2010 fourth-round SW19 exit to Yen-Hsun Lu, in which he surrendered serve once yet fell in five sets.
Beck hits his loopy, lefty forehand with the loose wrist of a baton twirler, but takes such a big backswing on the stroke that mishits seemed inevitable. He cracked an inside-out forehand winner for a 5-4 lead in the second-set tiebreaker, but squandered it with successive errors. Roddick sliced a sharp-angled ace out wide for a second set point and lifted a running backhand up the line that Beck couldn’t handle to take an imposing two-set lead.
The eighth seed sometimes plays like a baseball team built around an ace capable of hurling a shutout every outing, but struggling to scratch out runs. Roddick, the pitcher, faced only one break point, but managed to break the world No. 156 just three times. The American is enamored with his slice backhand, which is a valuable shot on grass, but he can get a bit too predictable with that play.
If Roddick can continue to wallpaper the back wall with aces, play bolder points on his return and hit his backhand with more variety, he should have a manageable match against second-round opponent Victor Hanescu, who has not won a set from Roddick in three prior meetings.
—Richard Pagliaro