1536: Quick word with Rodders: "He played pretty flawless for two sets, but I hung around. I'm playing better this year than last year, but at this tournament you start over every two days. It's a great court, the pinnacle of our sport, and it's great to be back here."

1534: Super contest, super reaction from the crowd - Roddick draws a chuckle by miming a kick, and he's beaming happily to ladyfriend and coach as he waves to all corners.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 6-7 Roddick
Now - can Llodra shock the stats and spectators by snatching the breaker? Ouch - two huge serves from Roddick, and it's 1-2 with serve. Big from Llodra - 2-2. Hello - first break of serve, Roddick flicking a vicious lob up and over, and Llodra can only frame it away. 2-3, 2-4 moments later as Roddick barrels down a beaut. Long from Llodra for 2-5. Super volleying for 2-6, and four match points - and there it is, blocked return, straightforward pass from the half-hit reply.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 6-6 Roddick
Delightful cut and thrust volleying at the net, and Llodra will take le biscuit with a nerveless dap deep into the backhand corner. At 30-30 he's skipping and twitching pre-return like a nervous fawn, but Roddick stands tall to crash crash crash - tie-break...

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 6-5 Roddick *
Ace from Llodra, followed by a woeful backhand volley into the net. Pressure? Not on the evidence of that half-volley - deep onto the baseline, and Roddick can only clatter into the net. "Come on England!" shouts one spectator, and that is the signal that Jermain Defoe has put England 1-0 up in Port Elizabeth...

* Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 5-5 Roddick
The respective tie-break records of the two foes? Roddick has a career win-loss ratio of 272-154, while Llodra is at 70-88. Draw your own obvious conclusions.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 5-4 Roddick *
Can either man stick any pressure on the other's serve? There's got to be a chance somewhere, and if it does come to the shoot-out, Llodra will fear for his survival.

* Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 4-4 Roddick
Apologies for the pace of these updates - some technical issues going on which are delaying every key-stroke. Mutual frustration. Roddick holds, and this set's got tie-break written all over it.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 4-3 Roddick *
76-second hold from Llodra, and he seems to have surmounted that sticky patch he went through in the third set.

* Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 3-3 Roddick
A volley from either man that could sit happily in any tennis textbook, bookended by untouchable Roddick serving.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 3-2 Roddick *
Llodra at pace again, holding without a wobble. Both men in the serving groove, and this fourth set has been tighter than a snake's sleeping-bag. A woman in the crowd unfurls a flamboyant technicolour parasol, and looks rather pleased with herself.

* Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 2-2 Roddick
Roddick on cruise control. Llodra comes up with one peachy backhand topspin lob, but it's tilting at windmills - he's lost the hand-hold he had on the Roddick serve in the first two sets.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 2-1 Roddick *
Well played, Michael - stiff-wristed volleying, and this m'sieur is not for retreating. Having asked on Twitter this morning whether updates from the football were preferred or not, there seemed to be mixed views. I'll stick to mere headlines: the game in Port Elizabeth has kicked off.

* Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 1-1 Roddick
Interesting. At 40-0 Roddick is cruising, only to seem to fall into two minds on a pair of backhands and allowing himself to be dragged back to 40-30. Nope - he's safe, serving with punch and pace.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 1-0 Roddick *
Still blistering sunshine overhead. I'm exaggerating a little - there's no-one actually blistering, not yet - but it's an old-fashioned June belter. Straightforward hold.

John Lloyd on BBC TV: "That was a wonderful set of tennis from Roddick. He just worked his way into that kind of form. At the start it was Llodra coming out with a gameplan that worked perfectly and took Roddick off balance a bit. He kept on grinding Llodra down and kept on hanging on in there and knew his chance would come and took it when it did. This would be a good match for Roddick and would give him a lot of confidence the way he is playing right now."

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-6 Roddick
Yup, there it is - llong from Lodra (you know what I mean) and Roddick has turned this one around.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-5 Roddick *
Roddick reading the leftie Llodra server so much better now, crouching low to batter a backhand reply into the opposite corner. Another huzzah return, this time almost cutting Llodra in half as he comes to the net, and another - break points. The Frenchman saves one with an all-guns-blazing first serve, but when Roddick whips a fabulous forehand back across himself on the run, Llodra can only frame into the slips. Rod hogging the driving-seat.

* Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-4 Roddick
Allez Llodra, what have you got? Pace off on the returns, forcing Roddick to over-reach - there'll be an instant break-back point here, but Roddick is so strong mentally - smashing wrecking-ball of a serve, ace, might-as-well-be follow-up. A lady in a strappy sun-dress with strawberry pattern fans herself with paperback.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-3 Roddick *
Something's changed out there, if only for the moment - Llodra's tightening up, plopping a volley back onto Roddick's forehand to be passed across his nose. Roddick leaping in to receive serve, crunching the reply back, spotting a gap down the forehand side and sliding a precision winner into the skinny space. Break...

* Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-2 Roddick
Fine derring-do from Llodra, scurrying to block back a stretching overhead from A-Rod, sticking up a block-lob and volleying with Edbergesque remorselessness. When he wins an exchange of soft-handed ding-dong volleys at the net he has a break point, only for Rodders to crank up the gas on the serve and accelerate away. Changeover, and punters stand to stretch legs and mop brows.

Llodra 6-4 4-6 1-1 Roddick *
June Whitfield watches on impassively from the Royal Box as Llodra volleys his way level. Seen so much, that woman. Oh to share a glass of Pimm's with her later and soak up the tales. Terry Scott did what? Kenneth Williams - did he really?

John Lloyd on BBC TV: "When you play Roddick on grass and he is playing at his best - a lot of times you are fortunate to get one chance to take him in the set. Llodra had that chance with two break points in the first game of the second set but he didn't take it and paid the price."

Some stats from the second set. Llodra's percentage of points won on the second serve was down to 20% while he made four unforced errors to Roddick's two and hit 13 winners compared to the American's 14.

* Llodra 6-4 4-6 0-1 Roddick
Wonder if that was the moment the match changed. Crashing hold, and there's barely a spare seat in the house.

* Llodra 6-4 4-6 Roddick
Trouble - big trouble. Llodra's suddenly shaky under that pressure, Roddick crashing a double-fisted backhand return right down the middle to get his nose in front and then getting joy from the same tactic to set up break point. Better first serve, but that's drilled back at his navel again as he comes in - attempted drop-volley, but off that kind of pace that's a big gamble.. into the net! Break nicked away, set stolen, match levelled up.

* Llodra 6-4 4-5 Roddick
That should lift the Rod-mood - hold to love, pushing the pressure back to his opponent to hang tough and hold serve to save the set. Up in the Royal Box, Brucie is sporting a very young man's pair of shades, Looks a little like Jack Nicholson with them on. Cracking blue sports jacket though.

Llodra 6-4 4-4 Roddick *
Dreamy volleying from Llodra, picking one up on the half-volley and getting it to sit down just across the divider like an obedient hound in the hands of Barbara Woodhouse. He thinks he might have cracked the frame of his racquet here, and pings the strings against his palm before holding the frame to his ear like a tuning-fork.

* Llodra 6-4 3-4 Roddick
Serve-volley again from Roddick, and while he puts away one volley, Llodders then passes him with a flashing single-handed backhand off a sit-up second serve. Ace - an eighth - to calm the Rod tremors, and at the changeover he plants himself under a large purple and green umbrella held aloft by an acquiescing ball-boy.

Llodra 6-4 3-3 Roddick *
Roddick sprints out wide and eats turf as he shoes go from underneath him. The cap's even come off. He passes Llodra down the backhand line for 30-15, but it's the only point he can get close to. Consternation on Coach Stefanki's chops.

* Llodra 6-4 2-3 Roddick
Llodra piling the pressure on Roddick serve. He tries another brace of floating returns, coming in to volley deep and forcing the error from Rod as an easy pass flies wide. He has the chance for a pass of his own, Roddick nailed down at the net, but he drags it into the net - wasted chance, and Roddick strides to his chair unbroken.

Llodra 6-4 2-2 Roddick *
Interesting - Roddick finally getting a toe-hold in the Llodra serve, ramping up the aggression and stepping in a little - Llodra raising it a little more in response, faking out to the backhand side before going back the other way.

John Lloyd on BBC TV: "It was an awesome first set by Llodra. Roddick only won 33% of the points on his second serve and he is not getting a sniff on the Llodra serve at the moment. Llodra is certainly having a go at the Roddick serve, especially the second serve."

* Llodra 6-4 1-2 Roddick
... and the same from Roddick. Cunning tactics here - Rodders has spotted that Llodra is choosing to block most returns, so he's starting to serve-volley to cut out that option.

Llodra 6-4 1-1 Roddick *
Hold to love, all the experience of the 30-year-old coming into play.

* Llodra 6-4 0-1 Roddick
This is wonderful stuff from Llodra - a half-volley pick-up off his shoelaces, and when he brings A-Rod to the net on the next point the American can only hard-hand into the tape. Two break points - oh, what a chance blown, clunking a volley (albeit a stretching one) into the net. He's right in the second one - super exchange, Llodra coming in to a deep approach but foxed by the lob and having to play the ball back between his legs - volley from Roddick, just got back, put away. Rally de jour. Fine volley at full reach on the backhand side from Roddick, and he's wriggled off the hook. For now.

Llodra 6-4 Roddick
Quick survey of the hats on display - I'd estimate floppies lead the way, closely followed by Panamas and boaters. Smashing pass from Rod to get sniff at 30-30, but he then finds himself Roddified - consecutive acers, and the Frenchman has stolen the first set away. Llodra's won 94% of points when his first serve has landed, and those are tough numbers for the American to face.

* Llodra 5-4 Roddick
Finally a touch of the familiars for Roddick - a hold to 15, although Llodra almost has some joy with a brace of lobbers. Mrs Rod, aka Brooklyn Decker, watches on from the VIP seats, face half-hidden by Aviator shades and a veil of blonde hair - can her beau now break to save the set?

Llodra 5-3 Roddick *
Llodra, black hair swept back off his forehead like a Gallic Ray Reardon, is serving like a dream - hard and fast down the middle, rapid out wide and then slicing off the backhand the other way. Splendid start.

* Llodra 4-3 Roddick
Roddick starting to look a little bemused by these returns - oof, so close, a flicking, dipping backhand cross court just falling into the tramlines. That's marginally long from Llodra, but Rodders isn't finding this easy. Ivan Ljubicic on finding a naked Llodra in his locker: "He was looking at me, I was looking at him. I said, 'What the hell are you doing here?'. He [Llodra] said to me, 'I'm trying to get positive energy from you. You're winning a lot of matches this year'. The locker, it's not a big locker, it's a small locker. It's not easy to get in that locker, I'm telling you. He is not a small guy [but] very flexible. Very, very flexible."

Llodra 4-2 Roddick *
Just heard an extraordinary story about Llodra hiding in Ivan Ljubicic's locker in Miami a few years back - either naked or in Ljubo's pants, depending who you believe. That sort of stunt would find favour with the watching Brucie and Tarbers, you'd have to think. Rock-solid hold, and the crowd are enjoying this.

* Llodra 3-2 Roddick
Fabulous from the Frenchman - dashing, flashing forehand pass down the line, then blocking another return, then chipping and charging - he's getting right into the Roddick serve, hitting returns to the backhand side, and there's a chance here for the break... taken! with super forehand relish. Up in the VIP slots, Mauresmo fist-pumps with teeth-gritted aggression.

Llodra 2-2 Roddick *
'Oopla - double fault from Llodra, but that's no disaster, not compared with last year, when his Wimbledon campaign was cut short when he collided with a ball-girl plus umpire's chair and sustained a euphemistic abdominal injury. Nice response - lovely forehand volley at the net; ace.

* Llodra 1-2 Roddick
Super shot from Roddick, getting his racquet-head low as a feisty return whistles towards his toes. Llodra mixing things up nicely with his return, chip-and-charging on a second serve, but Roddick has the muscle to over-power the resistance. Both players looking in tippedy-top form, on the early evidence - we could be in for a decent ding-dong.

Llodra 1-1 Roddick *
Llodra in form, of course, coming off the back of that win down in Eastbourne, and he's on the board with minimal fuss. Still a few seats free, mainly opposite the Royal Box, and sun-hats being adjusted in all corners.

* Llodra 0-1 Roddick
Roddick, austere white cap pulled low over his brow - that serve really is a joy to watch, as long as you're not across the other side of the net. First brace of aces - braces - and let's see what Leftie Llodra can offer in return.

* denotes next server

1304: Glimpse there of Amelie Mauresmo, ladies champion here in 2006 - she's been helping her countryman out with his grass game this season. And there's Roddick's coach Larry Stefanki, formerly with Tim Henman of course.

1300: Generous applause for both brave gladiators. They've met before, Roddick and Llodra, with the American coming out on top on both occasions. Neither of those matches on grass, though...

1256: Albert Roux in there as well, I should say. Stellar. Enough of that - here come the players!

1252: The fear, obviously, is that they've overloaded the Box with comedy talent there, and that no-one will take any notice of the tennis. In order of funniness, personally I'd go (3) Brucie (2) Tarbie and (1) erm, Juney. Her radio work with Roy Hudd - unparalleled.

1250: Heat. Blistering heat. But enough of that - Bruce Forysth is in the Royal Box! And June Whitfield! And Jimmy Tarbuck!