Roddick Edges Past Brave Bogdanovic to Reach Quarterfinals

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Three-time Artois Championships winner Andy Roddick was pushed to the limit by Britain’s Alex Bogdanovic before booking his place in the quarterfinals at The Queen’s Club on Thursday.

Bogdanovic came within two points of a dramatic victory at 5-5 in the second set tie-break and would have had a match point if it were not for a successful Hawk-Eye challenge by Roddick, before the American ran out a 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-4 winner.

“He played well,” said Roddick of Bogdanovic. “If he can play close to that consistently, you'll have another Top 40 player on your hands. At the same time I think it's easier to go out there with nothing to lose and play that kind of match.”

Bogdanovic, who was appearing in the third round of the Artois Championships for the first time, showed no signs of being intimated by the former No. 1, despite being on the receiving end of 22 aces.

The World No. 117 broke Roddick’s serve in the third game of the match and continued his attacking style throughout the first set, which he took in just under half an hour.

The second set seemed destined for a tie-break with each player dropping only two points on serve in the first nine games before Roddick finally made some headway while leading 5-4. Facing a set point, an ace by Bogdanovic was called out only to be over-turned when the Briton’s call for a Hawk-Eye challenge proved successful.

There was more drama to come in the tie-break, when, just two points from victory, Bogdanovic thought he had a match point when Roddick’s attempted cross-court forehand was called wide. This time it was the American’s turn to appeal and once again it proved to be a good challenge as the match point became a set point in his favour.

“That's what makes it really fun,” said Bogdanovic. “To be honest with you, I thought the ball was out at first. But then obviously often the machine has been more accurate. He hit a great shot, caught the line. That's the way it goes. Some days it would have been out. Today just, you know, a great shot by him. That's all you can do about that.”

Roddick made the most of his opportunity and took the next point to level the match at one set all. In the decider, Bogdanovic stayed with the former US Open champion until the seventh game but was then broken to love, and from there, there was no way back as Roddick completed his victory in 1 hour, 51 minutes.

“It's always disappointing,” said Bogdanovic. “I did play a great match today, but obviously every match you lose, you're kind of a little bit down. That's what tennis is about really.

“I played one loose game in the third set and it was over. When someone serves as big as Andy, it's really difficult. Every time he hit a first serve in, I struggled to return that. I think the key was he served a lot better than me. But I can take a lot of positives out of that match.”

Meanwhile, third seed Fernando Gonzalez looked impressive throughout a 6-2, 7-5 victory over No. 15 seed Robby Ginepri of the United States. Gonzalez, the World No. 6 who reached the quarterfinals at The Queen’s Club last year before losing to Roddick, will now meet Dmitry Tursunov after the Russian overcame Paul-Henri Mathieu.

Earlier in the day, the giant-killing run of Jo-Wilfried Tsonga came to an end at the hands of Marin Cilic. Tsonga, who upset defending champion Lleyton Hewitt on Wednesday, took the first set before going down 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 against the Croatian wild card. The 18-year-old Cilic, who had never won a match on grass before this week, will now meet Roddick for a place in the semifinals.