Rocket Roddick puts feet up

Andy Roddick was today enjoying an unexpected day off after racing through his second-round match at Wimbledon late last night.

The third-seeded American, who came from a set down to beat Janko Tipsarevic in the first round, did not set foot on court two until around 7.30pm following the epic five-set clash between Fernando Gonzalez and Marat Safin.

But the two-time finalist had no problems with the late start as he cruised to a 6-4 6-1 6-2 victory over Germany’s Florian Mayer.

“I don’t know if I was too thrilled when they decided to put us on a little after 7.30pm but I’m glad they put me on now,” admitted Roddick, beaten in the last two finals at the All England Club by Roger Federer.

“That felt right on the court. It was aggressive, I wasn’t overthinking, I was just reacting and playing. That felt normal which is welcome at this point.

“It feels good. All I wanted to do was be aggressive on every ball and that helped, as opposed to the first round when I was backing off a bit.”

Roddick could face Britain’s Andy Murray in the third round, a player he lost to when the teenager won his first ATP title in San Jose earlier this year.

“He’s very good at going from defence to offense and passed me a lot in San Jose,” Roddick added. “I didn’t serve well and was spraying my forehands a bit and against a consistent player like him it makes for a long day at the office.”

Murray’s match is one of two second-round matches to be completed today – he leads France’s Julien Benneteau two sets to one – the other featuring 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt against Korea’s Hyung-Taik Lee.

Lee took the first set on the tie-break and after Hewitt had levelled, served for the third at 6-5.

A typically combative Hewitt broke back, however, and then saved three set points in the tie-break, reeling off five points in a row to win it 8-6.

The Australian sixth seed then looked set to seal victory when he served for the match at 6-5 in the fourth, but lost his serve and the subsequent tie-break 7-5 before play was suspended for the day at 9.11pm.

Defending champion Federer was scheduled to be in third-round action today against France’s Nicolas Mahut on court one, while James Blake and Max Mirnyi faced off on Centre Court.

Croatia’s Mario Ancic, an outside tip for the title, was also on Centre against Federer’s Swiss Davis Cup team-mate Stanislas Wawrinka.