Countrywide Classic
By Steve Pratt
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Denis Gremelmayr
- GER |
The Andy Roddick Express rolled on Friday night at
UCLA as the former U.S. Open champion and top-seeded
American won easily, dropping just four games for
the second consecutive night.
Roddick beat France’s Marc Gicquel, 6-3 6-1, before
just under 7,000 fans at UCLA to earn a spot into
tonight’s semifinals. Roddick will play German Denis
Gremelmayr for the first time in the evening match
not before 7:30 p.m.
Gremelmayr had a bit of a tougher time in his
quarterfinal match, ending No. 5 seeded Marat
Safin’s run as he beat the Russian, 3-6 6-3 6-2.
Gremelmayr , who will turn 27 next week and is
actually a year older than Roddick, is currently
ranked No. 89 in the world. He was born in
Heidelberg but resides currently in Lampertheim. He
has yet to win an ATP title and his career earnings
are a meager $579,256, according to his ATP profile,
as compared to Roddick’s $14,133,538.
Roddick’s buddy Mardy Fish will be vying for his
11th ATP final when he faces off against Argentina’s
Juan Martin Del Potro, the No. 3 seed who beat
American qualifier Amer Delic, 7-6 (6), 6-2 on
Friday. Del Potro, just 19 and ranked No. 24 in the
world, has been on a hot streak of late, winning 12
matches including title at Stuttgart and Kitzbühel.
Fish downed Florent Serra of France, 6-4, 6-4.
In one doubles semifinal today Del Potro and partner
Fabio Fognini of Italy will face India’s Rohan
Bopanna and Eric Butorac of the U.S. In the evening
doubles semifinal to follow the Roddick match, Igor
Kunitsyn of Russia and Safin meet Travis Parrott of
the U.S. and Serbia’s Dusan Vemic.
Bopanna and Butorac beat former Stanford partners
and No. 2 seeds Scott Lipsky and David Martin, 6-4
6-4, while Parrott and Vemic got past Chris Haggard
of South Africa and Australian Stephen Huss, 6-3
6-4.
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John McEnroe -
USA |
Finally, in the legend’s final on Friday, Jim
Courier got past a stubborn John McEnroe 7-5 7-6
(3).
The singles semifinals will be broadcast by the
Tennis Channel at 1 p.m. match, with ESPN2 covering
the 7:30 p.m. match. ESPN2 will begin and end its
coverage from the Game Day desk that will be set up
just East of the Straus Stadium Court. The finals
will be contested on Sunday beginning at 2 p.m.
For questions or comments email Steve at
steve@tennisnews.com |
