Dancevic stuns top-seeded Roddick in Indianapolis
Last Updated: Saturday, July 28, 2007 | 9:25 PM ET
The Canadian Press
Canadian Frank Dancevic scored the biggest win of his career Saturday, defeating world No. 5 Andy Roddick of the U.S., 6-4, 7-6 (1) to reach the final of the Indianapolis Tennis Championships.
The 22-year-old from Niagara Falls, Ont., who had never reached an ATP quarter-final prior to this week, will play Sunday for the title against either American teenager Sam Querrey or third seed Dmitry Tursunov of Russia.
Frank Dancevic defeated top-seeded Andy Roddick on Saturday to advance to his first ATP final in Indianapolis.
(Ronald Martinez/Getty Images)
"I haven't thought about being in the final, I'm just enjoying the moment," said Dancevic. "I'm happy that I got through today, this is one of the best matches of my career."
Dancevic, ranked 109th in the world, is the first Canadian to advance to an ATP final since Greg Rusedski won in Seoul on April 30, 1995, just a month before taking a British passport.
Dancevic dominated Roddick in the tiebreaker after losing an early break in the fourth game but finishing his next three service games with aces. The Canadian finished the match with 15 aces, fighting on-court temperatures that approached 45 C.
Dancevic stayed calm in front of a pro-Roddick crowd, bouncing back from 0-30 down in the seventh game of the opening set and saving a pair of break points.
He fired four aces in his next service game, evening the set 4-4. Roddick crumbled on his ensuing service, and Dancevic earned the crucial break on his second chance with a service winner.
Roddick forced Dancevic to save two more break points in the deciding game before the Canadian fired a service winner for a set point.
Dancevic beat eighth-seed Benjamin Becker of Germany in the first round, then put out Argentine Juan Del Potro, followed by Russian Igor Kunitsyn in Friday's rain-plagued quarter-final that took nine hours to complete.
Querrey fired a career-high 34 aces, including nine in a row in the second set, to eliminate defending champion James Blake 7-6 (6), 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4) in a rain-delayed quarter-final.
The unseeded 19-year-old advanced to the semifinals for the first time in his first full season on the ATP tour.
After serving up the most aces in a three-set ATP tour match this season, he was set to play third-ranked Dmitry Tursunov of Russia in a semifinal later Saturday. Tursunov defeated Kei Nishikori of Japan 6-1, 6-4, in the other postponed quarter-final match.
Querrey relied on accuracy rather than speed, often serving just over 160 km/h.
"Just one of those days where I was in a zone serving and it definitely paid off there at the end," he said.
