Winston-Salem, N.C. – Andy Roddick leaned back in his chair, drink in hand, and yelled, “Let’s go, Bob!”
With the United States having clinched a spot in the Davis Cup semifinals, Roddick rested his sore left hamstring on a stress-free Sunday for the U.S. But he remained a cheerleader for a competition he desperately wants to win.
The Americans entered the day with a 3-0 lead over Spain in the best-of-five event, making reverse singles meaningless. Tommy Robredo beat Roddick’s replacement, doubles specialist Bob Bryan, 6-4, 6-4.
But as Roddick took the day off, he already was looking toward the September matchup with Sweden, which closed out a 4-1 win over Argentina on Sunday. While many top players shy away from the Davis Cup, Roddick is motivated to give the U.S. its first title since 1995.
“I don’t feel any responsibility. I want to be here,” Roddick said. “I don’t think Davis Cup is something that you can play at your convenience.”
In the other semifinal, defending champion Russia will play Germany. Russia, with a decisive singles victory by Marat Safin, downed France 3-2 in its quarterfinal. Germany, already assured of advancing, lost two singles matches but defeated Belgium 3-2.
Roddick’s Davis Cup commitment may be key to ending the longest title drought for the Americans in the event’s history. Spain’s chances were weakened when No. 2 ranked Rafael Nadal pulled out last week citing a sore foot, but likely more concerned with preparing for the clay-court season.
Spain reached the quarterfinals after beating Switzerland, which was without top-ranked Roger Federer.
But Roddick, ranked No. 3, has played in 12 consecutive Davis Cup events for the U.S. And barring injury, he’ll be in Sweden on Sept. 21-23.
“I feel that you start at the beginning of the year and you decide whether you’re going to go through the long haul of it or not,” Roddick said. “If it might be difficult or you’re not playing in your comfort zone, then all of a sudden you don’t want to play. I don’t necessarily understand that or agree with it.”
TENNIS
Golovin wins first WTA Tour title
Tatiana Golovin beat Nadia Petrova 6-2, 6-1 for her first WTA Tour singles title at the Bausch & Lomb Championships at Amelia Island, Fla.
Golovin was appearing in her fourth championship but had been runner-up in each of the three previous finals. This time, there was no denying the French teenager.
Golovin answered nearly all of the top-seeded Petrova’s booming but erratic serves and most of her blistering groundstrokes. But her best tactic was to wait until the defending champion made one of her 27 unforced errors.
“I forced myself to be aggressive and stay aggressive and use my forehand,” Golovin said. “That kind of put pressure on her.”
FOOTNOTES
Furor continues over Imus’ remarks
Don Imus will appear on the Rev. Al Sharpton’s radio show today, five days after Imus made racially charged comments on his own show about the Rutgers women’s basketball team, Sharpton and MSNBC announced.
Despite Imus’ scheduled appearance, Sharpton said his position was unchanged: He wants Imus fired and intends to write the Federal Communications Commission about the matter.
“Somewhere we must draw the line in what is tolerable in mainstream media,” Sharpton said Sunday. “We cannot keep going through offending us and then apologizing and then acting like it never happened. Somewhere we’ve got to stop this.”
The Rev. Jesse Jackson said his RainbowPUSH Coalition plans to protest today in Chicago outside the offices of NBC, which owns MSNBC, over the remark Imus made last Wednesday during his show.
Imus said members of the mostly black Rutgers University women’s basketball team were “nappy-headed hos.” The team, which includes eight black women, had lost the day before in the NCAA women’s championship game. Imus was speaking with producer Bernard McGuirk about the game when the exchange began on the show, which is broadcast to millions of people on more than 70 stations and the MSNBC television network.
“That’s some rough girls from Rutgers,” Imus said. “Man, they got tattoos … .”
“Some hard-core hos,” McGuirk said.
“That’s some nappy-headed hos there, I’m going to tell you that,” Imus said.
Glenn Howard led host Canada to the curling world championship with an 8-3 win over Germany.
