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Anderson knocks off Roddick, takes on Isner at Delray ITC
Kevin Anderson goes to the net in his match against Andy Roddick. The South African Anderson won.
By Palm Beach Business.com
DELRAY BEACH — For Kevin Anderson, it was the difference between night and day. Literally.
Badly losing the first set of his quarterfinals match with Andy Roddick, Anderson turned his game around and defeated the Boca Raton Prep graduate 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 Friday evening at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships.
The seventh seeded Anderson will face top-seed John Isner Saturday at 7:15 p.m.
Anderson’s explanation: it was his first night match of the tournament, and it took the first set to get used to conditions.
“It’s really a big difference the way the courts play,” Anderson said. “ The ball is a little heavier. It comes off the strings a little different.
“The second set I felt I gave myself quite a few chances. I settled down a bit, got a better look at his serve.”
For Roddick, it all came down to his serve.
“I played well enough to win,” Roddick said. “I didn’t serve well enough to win. You break someone like him three times and that should be enough to win.”
Roddick broke Anderson’s serve the first game of the match, and again in the fifth game of the opening match. Roddick, down 2-1 in the third set, broke Anderson again and seemed to have the momentum only to be broken himself.
In the tiebreaker, Roddick had match point three times but could not put Anderson away.
Saturday evening's match with Isner will be an unusual experience for the 6-foot 7-inch South African: he will be looking up to an opponent for one of the few times in his tennis career. Isner stands 6-10 and has a powerful serve that can exceed 130 mph at times.
The two met in the finals of the NCAA tournament a few years ago, when Anderson played for the University of Illinois and Isner the University of Georgia. Isner won.
"It's different playing someone taller than me," Isner said. "John's playing very well. He's probably go the best serve in the game, maybe the best tennis has seen."
That match is scheduled for after 9 p.m. at the Delray Beach Tennis Center. At 7:15, the British doubles team of Colin Fleming and Ross Hutchins take on Mikhail Elgin of Russia and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
Rockers in Recovery will perform between the afternoon and evening sessions.
Treat Conrad Huey of the Philippines deflects a shot to teammate Robert Farah of Colombia in a doubles match with Mikhail Elgin and Denis Istomin. Farah put it over the net, which would have worked well if only they had been playing volleyball.
