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| Andy Roddick returns a shot to Ramon Delgado in his second-round match at the RCA Championships© Matthew Stockman/Getty Images |
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Andy Roddick won his first singles match since losing in the third round of Wimbledon, beating Paraguay's Ramon Delgado 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday night in the second round of the RCA Championships.
Roddick, the 2003 and 2004 RCA winner, is looking for his first tournament victory of the season. He's 27-12 this year and has slipped to 11th in the world rankings.
After the loss at Wimbledon, the second-seeded Roddick worked to turn his season around, including a week of lessons from Jimmy Connors.
"Jimmy had some real good ideas, which I think I'll keep to myself. The workouts were fun. They were intense,'' Roddick said. "I was a lot more prepared this time. I'm more physically and mentally ready for this than I have been in some time.''
Also Tuesday, defending champion Robby Ginepri rallied to beat Alejandro Falla 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, with an instant replay challenge overturning a key point.
The event is the first U.S. Open Series tournament to allow players to challenge calls and get them reviewed using instant replay. Ginepri and Falla were tied at 5 in the second set when chair umpire Zsolt Beda of Hungary ruled a shot by Ginepri was out, giving Falla a 6-5 lead. But Ginepri challenged the ruling and the video showed his shot was actually in, giving him the lead. He went on to capture the second set.
"I'm glad they started it here,'' Ginepri said. "I needed to come up with the challenge, and it worked in my favor.''
Each player gets two challenges per set to review line calls. A player only loses a challenge if the call stands. Players will receive an additional challenge during a tiebreaker, but can't carry over challenges from one set to another.
Ginepri, seeded fourth, had lost his opening-round matches in 10 previous tournaments while struggling to a 6-16 record.
"The best part of this match was I didn't play nearly my best tennis, and I still found a way to win,'' he said. "That's much bigger than winning a 6-0, 6-1 match.''
In other second-round matches, third-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile defeated Sam Querrey 6-3, 6-4; 11th-seeded Paul Goldstein beat Romania's Razvan Sabau 6-2, 6-1; 14th-seeded Vince Spadea routed Brazil's Ricardo Mello 6-3, 6-1; and Jeff Morrison beat 13th-seeded Kevin Kim 6-2, 6-2. In first-round play, South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik beat Australia's Mark Philippoussis 6-4, 7-6 (3).