Points won by each set: [ 39-32, 14-25, 35-23, 33-24 ]
Points won directly behind the serve:
20 % Schuettler – 21 of 102
30 % Roddick – 38 of 123

Normally, Roddick [10] could be considered as a huge favourite in his first encounter against Schuettler [36] who hadn’t been rather expected to participate in a major quarter-final prior to Australian Open ’03. But the shooting star from America, entered the indoor semifinal after two exceptionally tough matches being a few points away from defeat in them both (Youzhny – 3:14h & El Aynaoui – 4:59h) while the German spent much less time in his previous two rounds. Schuettler was incomparably fresher from the beginning whereas Roddick was not only very tired, but also had problems with his right wrist. Given all those circumstances A-Rod notched quite respectable scoreline. Probably he knew from the start that his only chance to advance to the final was to do it in three or four quick sets. There was an outlook for that in the mid-3rd set – he had a break point at 2-all, and energetically run to his FH corner to play a moon lob. He lost the point (threw his racquet) and the three games in a row which meant his demanding Melbourne run went to the end before the 3rd set was finished. Schuettler converted his first match point with a backhand passing-shot, and after 2 hours 20 minutes celebrated unimaginable success lying on the court. It’s strange that Schuettler drew such a confidence upon that victory that he was able to beat Roddick twice more in the second part of the season even though the American significantly improved in the following few months after the Melbourne loss, becoming the best player in the world.