Roddick withdraws from Delray Beach

 

Originally published on: 22/02/11 09:59

Despite claiming his 30th career title in Memphis on Sunday, Andy Roddick will not challenge for back-to-back titles this week after a flu-like illness forced his withdrawal from the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships.

The 28-year-old, who has not played at Delray Beach since 2003, was sad to miss the tournament, which contains a strong American field.

“I’m very disappointed. I’ve waited too long to come back and play this tournament,” said Roddick, who made his ATP debut in Delray Beach in 2000. “It’s just unfortunate timing. I was looking forward to coming back. I honestly don’t feel I can go out there and give my best.”

In Roddick’s absence, there were mixed results on the opening day for the American men. Second seed Sam Querrey defeated Dustin Brown in three sets, before wild card entrant James Blake managed a 7-5 6-4 victory over Benjamin Becker.

But despite the positive start, youngster Ryan Harrison was defeated 3-6 6-3 7-5 by Frenchman Florent Serra, before John Isner was beaten 6-4 5-7 7-6(13) by Russia’s Teymuraz Gabashvili despite holding four match points.

“We were both fighting so hard,” said 25-year-old Gabashvili, who admitted to envisaging a match similar to the epic Isner contested with Nicolas Mahut at last year’s Wimbledon.

“In the end he missed his first serve… Probably when he saw that he had to play the point, he just went for it and I had so much luck.

“Otherwise, he could make another ace and we can play maybe like he played in Wimbledon, we could play tie-break like 100-all.”

In the end the final set tie-break was a ‘mere’ 28 points, as the world No.76 condemned Isner – who has won just three matches so far this year – to his second straight first round defeat.

Check out the gallery of pics from day one at Delray Beach here.

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