WASHINGTON -- One quick slam of the racket, two quick points
and Andy Roddick was in control for good.
Roddick overpowered Justin Gimelstob 6-2, 6-2 to reach the third
round of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic on Wednesday night.
Roddick will play the No. 16 seed Fernando Meligeni, who beat
Atilla Savolt 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4.
Roddick, the tournament's defending champion, broke serve in the
opening game and followed with serves that reached 132 mph.
Gimelstob was able to keep pace with Roddick through the first
four games of the second set, but he gave up a break when Roddick
hit a drop-volley for a winner to take control of the set.
With the second set tied at 2-all, Roddick had a break point in
the game's first deuce, and he briefly showed frustration. Roddick
approached the net and tried to pass Gimelstob with his backhand,
but Gimelstob lunged to his right to pick off the passing shot and
volleyed it for a winner. Roddick gave his racket a two-handed slam
to the court before recovering to win the next two points.
"He started pretty well in the second set,'' Roddick said.
"But that one game where we battled back and forth and I finally
broke him, that was the difference.''
Fifth-seeded Marcelo Rios advanced by defeating Bob Bryan 7-6
(7) 3-6, 6-2.
Seventh-seeded Thomas Enqvist struggled in the first set before
beating Michael Russell 7-6 (13), 6-0.
Todd Martin, seeded 10th, was knocked out by Alex Kim 6-4, 7-6
(5). That match appeared headed for a third set with Martin serving
at 3-2 in the second-set tiebreaker, but Martin served five
straight faults. Then he failed to put away a forehand volley at
the net that would have tied it at 5-all.
Frenchman Jerome Golmard moved one step toward changing the
color of his red-striped mohawk by defeating Michael Chang 7-5,
6-4. After upsetting American Jan-Michael Gambill on Monday,
Golmard said he would change his hair color if he reached the
semifinals. He's two matches away.
"I was blonde, next one is blue,'' said Golmard, who hasn't
played since Wimbledon. "I'm so happy to play tennis again, a win
or a loss it doesn't matter to me. That's maybe why I won today,
because I don't care about the score.''
In other second-round play, American Brian Vahaly defeated
15th-seeded Jan Vacek 6-3, 6-4; No. 8 seed Jarkko Nieminen beat
Frank Dancevic 7-5, 6-0; Guillermo Coria ousted the No. 9 seed 6-4,
7-6 (3); Lars Bursmuller beat 12th-seeded Fernando Vicente 6-2,
6-1; the No. 14 seed, Paradorn Srichaphan, beat Kevin Kim 7-6 (1),
6-1; Karol Kucera beat Raemon Slutier 4-6, 6-1, 6-4; and American
James Blake defeated Russia's Oleg Ogorodov 6-4, 6-1.