1 Response to miami01roddick_sampras

1. Voo de Mar says:

   March 30, 2025 at 8:21 am

   Points won by each set: | 46-38, 30-18 |
   Points won directly behind the serve:
   40 % Roddick – 24 of 60
   36 % Sampras – 26 of 72

   When the 18-year-old Roddick ousted the former No. 1 Rios [26] in the second round 6-4, 6-1, it was his biggest win at the time. The teenage American didn’t stop there, and made a bigger upset in his another match, eliminating the defending champion, and the best player of the previous decade – Sampras [4]. After an early exchange of breaks, Roddick held all his service games to the end of the match smoothly, with only one question mark at *4:5 (15/30) – he won then three straight points quickly, and the tie-break 7/2. It was really impressive that despite his young age, he was able to deliver serves ~210 kph in succession, two years later he’d produce the fastest serves in the world. The only break of the 2nd set he obtained at 1:0 and didn’t show any signs of nervousness having an open road to his breakthrough victory. Roddick was stopped in Miami’s quarterfinal by Hewitt, who was on his way to become the best player in the world later that year, but the wins over Rios and Sampras boosted Roddick’s confidence enormously, and after Miami he captured back-to-back titles on American clay (Atlanta, Houston) winning 19 sets in a row! Roddick moved from No. 119 to 48 thanks to three events, the new star was born.

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