 Roddick won the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami in April |
World number eight Andy Roddick's preparations for the French Open suffered a setback when he was forced to withdraw from the Madrid Masters. The American, who had been due to play Feliciano Lopez, has picked up a virus. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (7) retired with a back strain after losing his first set against Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-2. Fourth seed Robin Soderling lost 6-4 7-5 to Nicolas Almagro but Rafael Nadal reached the third round with a 6-4 6-3 win over Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr. The number two seed broke early against the Ukrainian qualifier to take control of the first set but his 21-year-old opponent made life tougher in the second with some blistering groundstrokes.  | I only had two matches going in last year and had my best French Open so it is possible |
Nadal, watched by Real Madrid stars past and present in Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul and Zinedine Zidane, progressed to a meeting with giant American John Isner, who came from a set down to beat Colombian qualifier Santiago Giraldo 1-6 7-6 6-3. "He's very unusual and very difficult to play against and I helped him play well by playing the ball too short," said Nadal. Spanish ninth seed David Ferrer beat Marcos Baghdatis 1-6 6-3 7-5, while tenth seed Mikhail Youzhny lost 7-6 6-4 to Ernests Gulbis and Thomaz Bellucci (16) went down 6-2 6-2 to Juan Monaco. Roddick, who suffered bouts of vomiting, said he had found it difficult to focus on the ball during his first-round men's doubles loss on Tuesday. | 606: DEBATE |
"I guess I've got a stomach virus," he said. "I got here and on Sunday night through Monday evening I was up for 24 hours vomiting, sweating, the whole deal. "I played doubles yesterday but I felt I was late to the party on everything. "I woke up this morning thinking I would be able to play, but after practice I felt I couldn't see the ball very well and I think if I can't focus on the tennis ball very well I can't compete." Roddick reached the fourth round at the French Open last year, his best performance in eight appearances at Roland Garros. The 27-year-old has been in excellent touch this year, capturing his second Sony Ericsson Open title with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Tomas Berdych in Miami last month. And he hopes to continue his form when the second major of the season gets under way in Paris on 23 May. "It's very bad timing. I would've taken this virus any time in the last five weeks instead of now, but I guess that's the way it goes sometimes," he added. "You always want a great tournament heading into a Slam and I think you're more likely to play well with matches going in," said the 27-year-old. "A lot of things depend on how long this thing lasts. This is obviously far from perfect heading into Paris, but you have to play the hand you're dealt. "Playing well in Paris isn't totally out of the question."
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