Roddick Passes Beck Test; Gasquet Through

Back to list >

Two-time defending champion Andy Roddick was pushed all the way in his third round match against Karol Beck, but the American drew upon all of his experience when it counted most to record a 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory and book his place in the quarterfinals of the Stella Artois Championships.

Roddick fired 13 aces en route to his 1-hour, 44-minute victory, extending his winning streak at The Queen's Club to 12 having won the title on his last two visits in 2003-04.

"After the first set I think he really stepped up his game," said Roddick. "For a while there he was playing with not a whole lot of margin on his shots, but pretty consistently. I felt like I was making him play a lot, I was making a lot of returns. A lot of times he was just coming up with the goods and getting the lead early in the service games.

"I kept saying to myself that maybe he'd get tight if he kept going for those kind of high-risk shots, and, you know, luckily he did a little bit in the last game."

Beck, who reached the quarterfinals last year having defeated Tim Henman along the way, recovered from the loss of the first set to break Roddick in the eighth game of the second to force a deciding set.

However, two consecutive double faults at 4-5 by the Slovak - his eighth and ninth of the match - handed Roddick a match point, which he duly converted to a earn a place in the last eight against either Sebastien Grosjean or fellow American James Blake.

Meanwhile, big-serving Croatian giant Ivo Karlovic booked his place in the quarterfinals for the first time after defeating Tomas Zib, and French teenager Richard Gasquet continued his impressive debut with a 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 victory over No. 5 seed Mario Ancic, a semifinalist at Wimbledon last year.

Back to list >