See what made Andy Roddick lose his cool

From Comcast SportsNetTuesday, August 16, 2011

MASON, Ohio (AP) -- As soon as Andy Roddick smacked a ball into the stands in a fit of pique, he figured it would cost him.Sure enough, chair umpire Carlos Bernardes assessed him a point penalty that put him behind 2-0 in the third set of his 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-1 loss to Philipp Kohlschreiber Monday night in the first round of the Western & Southern Open."Obviously a split-second thing," Roddick said. "Soon as I hit it, I wanted it back.Roddick already had received a warning from for flinging his racket to the court after losing the second set.It was a judgment call for (Bernardes)," Roddick said. "Pretty sure I saw an 8-year-old girl catch it on the way down. He was telling me I hit it as hard as I could. I was like, 'Dude ...'""It's so frustrating. I certainly accept what I did," Roddick said. "I put him in a bad situation out there, but I do think it's stupid in tennis that -- I mean, in football if someone throws a helmet on the sideline, it's their helmet. We wonder where we lose our ratings battles to the WWF, Monday Night Raw."Although the NFL penalizes players who do things such as throwing their helmets, Roddick would like to see tennis players get a little more leeway in such situations. He cited John McEnroe, for one."The guy is still getting endorsements because he was allowed to throw" things, Roddick said. "I understand where (Bernardes) is coming from, but at a certain point, you know, you hit a tennis ball into a stadium, someone goes home with a souvenir, and it pretty much ruins the match from there" to penalize the player."Seems counterproductive," Roddick said. "At a certain point, I would love it if we got out of our own way."As the match went on, Kohlschreiber could see Roddick's frustration growing, and took advantage of it."I started guessing right and returning balls," the 47th-ranked Kohlschreiber said. "I took the chances, and he got a little frustrated."Also in Monday's first round, Italy's Fabio Fognini upset 14th-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia 6-4, 6-1.The 38th-ranked Fognini beat the 16th-ranked Troicki for first time in three matches.France's Richard Gasquet became the first seeded man to advance without a bye. The 14th-seeded Gasquet needed a second-set tiebreaker to overcome Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov 6-1, 7-6 (4)."I did a pretty good tiebreak," Gasquet said. "There was a lot of tension, but I knew it was important because, in the third set, you never know what can happen, so I'm happy."Alex Bogomolov Jr. cruised past Robby Ginepri 6-4, 6-3 in a matchup of Americans.Spain's Fernando Verdasco defeated Brazil's Thomaz Bellucci 6-3, 7-6 (4), Bulgaria's Grigor Dimitrov beat Turkey's Marsel Ilhan 6-3, 7-5, Feliciano Lopez fought off fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, and Argentina's David Nalbandian beat Japan's Kai Nishikori 6-4, 6-4.American wild-card Ryan Harrison ousted Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-3, and Chela's countryman, Juan Monaco, came from behind to beat Tommy Haas of Germany 6-7 (5), 6-4, 6-3.Svetlana Kuznetsova became the first seeded woman to advance without a bye. The 14th-seeded Russian beat American qualifier Jill Craybas 6-3, 6-4. Ninth-seeded Andrea Petkovic lost the first set and survived a second-set tiebreaker to pull out a 5-7, 7-6 (5) 6-2 win over Slovakian Jamila Gajdosova, and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia rolled to a 6-0, 6-2 win over qualifier Alexa Glatch of the United States.Petkovic felt as if she almost didn't deserve to win the grueling match that lasted 2 hours, 52 minutes."I feel terrible," she said. "I feel awful, really, because (Gajdosova) was playing incredible. She was just hitting winners all over. I don't know how long we played, and I felt like I was in the defense all the time. That's not a good feeling, especially for a player like me who likes to be the dominant one, so I just felt terrible all the time. I don't know how I pulled it out, but I'm thrilled that I did."Ivanovic needed just 26 minutes to win her first set and exactly one hour to finish her match. The former French Open champion hoped for a quick start, she said."It was very important, especially knowing she had a couple of matches under her belt," said the 17th-ranked Ivanovic, forced by a left foot injure to retire while playing eventual champion Kim Clijsters in last year's semifinals. "I had never seen her before, so it was like a new match for me."Ukraine's Alona Bondarenko defeated Japan's Ayumi Morita 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Israel's Shahar Peer beat Germany's Sabine Lisicki 6-4, 7-6 (4); Czech qualifier Petra Cetkovska defeated Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 2-6, 6-2, 6-2, and Italy's Sara Errani beat U.S. qualifier Sloane Stephens 6-1, 7-5.