Roddick advances with five-set win

Grand slam tennis at Roland Garros

Associated Press

PARIS

Andy Roddick’s preparation for this French Open was hardly traditional. Or ideal, from a purely tennis perspective, anyway.

He skipped a clay-court event in Rome so he could celebrate his one-year wedding anniversary with his wife, Sports Illustrated swimsuit cover model Brooklyn Decker. He missed another tuneup tournament in Madrid because of a stomach virus.

Scrambling to get set, Roddick played a couple of hastily arranged exhibitions and practiced a bunch at Roland Garros with Mardy Fish, a pal since high school. If Roddick felt he needed more match time on his least favorite surface, he accumulated it in a hurry Tuesday, digging himself out of a hole and coming back to beat Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 7-6 (4), 6-3 in the French Open’s first round.

“It’s kind of like when you miss an assignment in school, and they give you a chance to get extra credit. I’ve been trying real hard to get extra credit ... and I definitely wasn’t match-tough,” the sixth-seeded Roddick said. “There was a lot of ugliness out there today. But at the end of it, I get to play again.”

So does a group of other Americans: Roddick and Fish are among five U.S. men into the second round, equaling the largest contingent at this Grand Slam tournament since six made it in 1998. Robby Ginepri knocked off 18th-seeded Sam Querrey 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-4, 6-2 in an all-American match Tuesday, while John Isner and Taylor Dent won Monday.

Querrey is a 22-year-old from Santa Monica, Calif., who had the best clay-court season of any U.S. man, winning a title at Belgrade, Serbia, this month. But after falling to 0-4 for his career at the French Open, Querrey described feeling what sounded like burnout. He said he’ll fly home immediately and pull out of doubles; he was supposed to play with Isner.

“Not into it. Mentally not there. I mean, you know what? I don’t know. Just did not enjoy myself out there. It’s been like that on and off for, like, a while,” Querrey said. “I don’t want to be fighting myself out there and also fighting the opponent.”

Roddick, the 2003 U.S. Open champion, hadn’t competed on clay since last year’s French Open, when he reached the fourth round for the first time — and he hadn’t played on tour anywhere since April 4, when he won the hard-court title at Key Biscayne, Fla.