Roddick Advances in Doubles

July 18, 2006 06:11 PM
Roddick and Reynolds
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Andy Roddick made a rare doubles appearance Monday night in the RCA Championships as he tries to turn around a disappointing season.

Roddick, who has fallen out of the top 10 in the ATP Tour singles rankings after failing to reach a championship final this year, teamed with Bobby Reynolds to beat Jeff Coetzee and Dominik Hrbaty 6-4, 6-4 in a first-round match.

The Americans were teammates for the first time ever and didn't even practice or warm up together before the match.

"I wanted to get some work in,'' said Roddick, a two-time RCA champion who is seeded second in the singles draw. "I've been sitting around doing nothing for two weeks.''

He'll play a second-round singles match Tuesday night against Ramon Delgado of Paraguay, a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5) winner over Amer Delic.

"It was good to get out there and get used to center court,'' Roddick said. "It certainly is not going to hurt, getting out there and trying to hit some returns and try to get a little gauge to what serves are working.''

Also Monday, Thailand's Danai Udomchoke beat Tomas Cakl of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-2 to set up a second-round match against top-seeded James Blake.

Other first-round winners included Jeff Morrison and Sam Querrey, a wild- card entry who at 18 has become the youngest player from the United States ranked in the top 200. Morrison beat Mexico's Santiago Gonzalez 6-2, 6-2, and Querrey topped Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-4.

 

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