Wimbledon: Andy Roddick beats Philipp Kohlschreiber
Wimbledon Championships Venue: All England Club, London Date: 21 June - 4 July Coverage: Live on BBC One and Two, HD, Red Button, BBC Sport website (UK only), Radio 5 live, 5 live sports extra; live text commentary online and on mobile phones; watch again on BBC iPlayer Full details of BBC coverage
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Roddick booked for week two
By David Ornstein BBC Sport at Wimbledon
Andy Roddick gave an accomplished display to see off the spirited challenge of Philipp Kohlschreiber and advance to round four of Wimbledon.
The American fifth seed, a three-time finalist at SW19, won 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-3 and will next face Yen-Hsun Lu.
Roddick showed his experience to break at crucial times in the first and third sets before dominating the fourth.
He was faultless on serve and converted four of nine break points, while 29th seed Kohlschreiber took none of seven.
The manner of this victory will fill Roddick with confidence ahead of his meeting with world number 82 Lu, who advanced after his opponent Florian Mayer retired with a leg injury while trailing 6-4 6-4 2-1.
He came up with a performance packed with skill and no shortage of determination, especially after an opening set in which was nothing choose between he and Kohlschreiber until game 12.
"I had one of the tougher second round draws for the seeds I could have played and Philipp might be the most dangerous one there. I had lost to him in a Slam before and I knew it was going to be tough and I was relieved to have got through," he said.
Neither man could even force a break point as proceedings were dominated by their near-faultless deliveries, Roddick returning a first-serve percentage of just under 80% and Kohlschreiber a little over 60%.
But the German's concentration then wavered at the worst possible time and, after recovering from 0-15 to bring up 40-15, his forehand fell apart.
He made three terribly uncharacteristic errors, firing long twice and netting once before failing to return a pickup after a gripping mid-court exchange on set point.
Suddenly the momentum was with Roddick and he opened the second set with a commanding love service game, sealed with one of 28 aces, before getting to 40-30 on his opponent's serve with the aid of an untimely double-fault.
Yet Kohschreiber came through strongly to hold and then engineered three break points of his own in game seven.
As he has done so often over the years, though, Roddick turned to his trustworthy delivery to avert the danger and by game 10 Kohlschreiber found himself fighting off three break points to stay in the set.
This time the 26-year-old from Augsburg held his nerve to forced a tie-break and, after an stunning crosscourt backhand pass gave him an immediate mini-break, he took the set at the first time of asking with an stinging forehand that Roddick could only net.
At the changeover the 2003 US Open champion looked far from impressed and he made an aggressive start to the first set, breaking to 15 when Kohlschreiber whipped a backhand long.
There were few scares for either player during the subsequent seven games but at 3-5 Kohlschreiber served to stay in the set for the fourth time in the match and, as in the opener, he cracked.
Roddick attacked him from the first point and forced a set point when Kohlschreiber looped a backhand long. A high-quality rally followed but Roddick showed greater poise to strike with a running forehand winner up the line.
The American opened the four set with a hold to love and backed it up when the decisive break when Kohlschreiber flicked another backhand past the baseline.
Roddick then stormed towards the finish line and, despite squandering a match point on his opponent's serve in game eight as Kohlschreiber wowed the Court One crowd with a series of eye-catching late winners, wrapped up the win with a booming ace down the middle.
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