Madrid – 1R

Three best American players (Mardy Fish, Andy Roddick and Sam Querrey) suffered an early exit from the Mutua Madrid Open. Roddick [12] lost his third consecutive match, all of them in ‘Masters 1000’ events. His conqueror, qualifier  Flavio Cippola [160], produced the biggest win of his life overcoming Roddick 6-4, 6-7, 6-3 in 3 hours 3 minutes despite wasting a match point in the second set tie-break. It’s Roddick’s first defeat in these circumstances since 2001 (a match in which won a set being one point away from defeat).
John Isner [33] gained revenge on Fish [11] for two tight defeats. This time Isner had more luck and prevailed in typical style, in the third set tie-break (7-6, 4-6, 7-6), passing fellow American on his first match point after almost 3 hours of play. “It’s great to get it done, no doubt. Mardy is playing really well, and I thought he played well today, and I had to play extremely well myself,” said Isner, improving to 19-9 in matches decided by a final set tie-break (on the main level).
Former champion of the tournament in Madrid (eight years ago, albeit indoors), Juan Carlos Ferrero [73] was one game away from beating Thiemo de Bakker [83], but the Dutchman scored another win (2-6, 7-5, 6-4) over the former No. 1 (he beat Ferrero last year in Barcelona). Albert Montanes [26] led 4:0 in the deciding set tie-break against Sergiy Stakhovsky [38], but was able to win only one point to the end of the match and broke his racquet in anger after the last point (Stakhovsky’s service winner). The Ukrainian saved a set point in the first set tie-break, he won the match 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 in 2 hours 24 minutes. Milos Raonic [25] served out a European clay-court record this year – 23 aces, but it wasn’t enough to sink a local favorite Feliciano Lopez [39]. The Spaniard won the match (4-6, 7-6, 6-4) consisted of only two breaks, winning just two points more (95-93).