Roddick suffers second-round exit

The highly-seeded American made his earliest exit ever from Wimbledon.

WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Andy Roddick could sense himself losing it. First he blinked, then he choked.

Janko Tipsarevic saw it happening, and he tightened his grip.

Sixth-seeded Roddick, who lost the 2004 and ’05 Wimbledon finals to Roger Federer and was touted by none other than Rod Laver to make the 2008 final, instead made his earliest exit ever at the All England Club Thursday, a 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6 (4) second-round loss to No. 40-ranked Tipsarevic.

“Any chance I got I pretty much just choked it,” Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion said. “It’s like you want something so bad you almost squeeze too tight.”

Roddick had eight break-point chances, including three set points that could have evened the match at two-sets all, but failed on every one.

His worst — on the second set point and facing a second serve — he limply netted an awkward-looking forehand return.

Roddick can be his own harshest critic. Here’s his assessment:

“The guy hit average serves in the middle of the box at about 90 miles an hour. There’s no excuse,” he said. “If I consider myself a top player or whatever, you make those. You make those in your sleep.

“I just didn’t make anything happen out there tonight. Zero, zero, zero.”

As in zero-for-8.

“Today I could see that he was tight, and this is one of the reasons why, especially in the important moments, I made him play,” Tipsarevic said. “I didn’t try to hit great shots like impossible, down-the-line shots.

“Professional tennis players feel the intensity and see when the other guy is choking. If you can read that, that’s a great benefit for you.”

Tipsarevic, meanwhile, had a 100 percent conversation rate on break points at 2-for-2.

He set up two match points but only needed one, falling to his hands and knees on Centre Court when he finished it off in just over three hours.

“This means the world to me,” Tipsarevic said. He has made the fourth-round at a Grand Slam event — here last year — but rated the win over Roddick as one of the most significant of his career.

The 24-year-old Tipsarevic was not the Serbian pundits picked to be in the third round of the men’s draw. But No. 3-ranked Novak Djokovic, the reigning Australian Open champion, lost to Marat Safin in the second round.

Now Tipsarevic wants to take up the challenge for Serbia, which has produced its first men’s and women’s Grand Slam titles this year. He explains his lack of consistency of the past by saying he saves his best for the big players.

That’s what happened against Roddick.

“I just looked at the statistics, and it’s really simple: Today I won because I used my chances and he didn’t,” Tipsarevic said.