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Roddick seeks third consecutive title at RCA Championships

INDIANAPOLIS - Andy Roddick will hope that a
unspectacular field will once again lead to another title.

The top-seeded Roddick goes for his third consecutive title when
the $600,000 RCA Championships hardcourt event begins Monday.

The third-ranked Roddick is the only player in the top 20 in the
field. Since the event was moved from its usual date in
mid-August by the ATP Tour in 2003, it has had trouble drawing
many of the top foreign players.

The field was further weakened by the absence of Andre Agassi,
who withdrew Friday with a back injury.

Roddick, who is 18-4 on hard courts this season, is tuning up
for the U.S. Open. After winning his only Grand Slam title at
Arthur Ashe Stadium in 2003, the 22-year-old lost to Swede
Joachim Johansson in five sets in the quarterfinals last year.

The 16 seeds received first-round byes in the 48-player draw. In
the second round, Roddick will meet Dmitry Tursunov of Russia,
who defeated Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei, 6-3, 6-3, in one of
five first-round matches on Monday. German Nicolas Kiefer is
seeded second. Ranked 22nd in the world, Kiefer reached the
final here last season, losing in straight sets to Roddick.

Kiefer's first opponent will be Antony Dupuis, who beat fellow
German Alexander Popp, 7-5, 6-1.

The third seed is Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia. A key ingredient
in his country's win over the Netherlands in the Davis Cup
quarterfinals last weekend, Hrbaty will face the winner of
Tuesday's first-round matchup between American Jeff Morrison and
Swiss George Bastl.

American Taylor Dent is the fourth seed. The serve-and-volley
specialist, who has been bothered since March by a nagging ankle
injury, is coming off a career-best showing at Wimbledon,
advancing to the fourth round.

He awaits a second-round matchup with either American
Jan-Michael Gambill or teenage wild card Donald Young.

In other action Monday, Wesley Moodie of South Africa ousted
France's Jean-Rene Lisnard to set up a meeting with No. 7 Greg
Rusedski of Britain in the second round. Despite facing a short
rain delay, American Robby Ginepri breezed past Swede Michael
Ryderstedt, 6-1, 6-4.

On Monday night, Frenchman Gregory Carraz outlasted American
James Blake, 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 7-5.
First prize is $74,250.

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