Roddick Has Act Going Strong

NEW YORK — Andy Roddick, who celebrates his 21st birthday today, has been working on toning down his on-court exuberance, trying not to get too riled up during matches.

According to Ivan Ljubicic, the man Roddick beat, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (8), in the second round of the U.S. Open on Friday night, Roddick is still too loud and too demonstrative on court.

“Anywhere in the world, except in the United States, if we played this match, I would have won it,” Ljubicic said. “I mean, generally, I don’t like him. I mean, not me -- nobody in the locker room likes his acting on the court. I mean, he’s a good player. He’s going to win a lot of matches, but not because he’s like that. It’s just that we don’t like it. Because nobody acts like that. He’s the only one.”

Ljubicic said other players wished him luck and urged him to beat Roddick.

Told of the comments, Roddick said: “I think that’s pretty much sour grapes.... That doesn’t really deserve a response. I don’t think that’s very respectful.”

It was a rare moment of indignation on a day when the seedings generally followed form.

On the men’s side among those to advance were No. 2-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland and No. 20 Mark Philippoussis of Australia. On the women’s side, Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn pulled the biggest surprise, eliminating No. 9 Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, 6-2, 6-4, while No. 1 Kim Clijsters of Belgium, No. 3 Lindsay Davenport and No. 5 Amelie Mauresmo of France advanced.

Ljubicic, a Croatian ranked 43rd in the world, didn’t pull any surprises. He was just plain upset.

Particularly perturbing for the Croatian was what he considered a blown call on the last of four set points he wasted in the final tiebreaker. Roddick hit a runaround forehand that landed right at the line. Ljubicic thought it should have been called out, put his hands on his head and dropped to his knees in exasperation.

“That was the crucial point, obviously. I am expecting some bad calls. But, you know, it hurts when it happens in the crucial moment like that,” Ljubicic said, adding that he thought a linesman’s ruling could be affected by hearing Roddick yell, “Yes!” after hitting a shot.

Roddick, who has been known to flash his temper during his distinguished junior career, did his best to fire up Friday night’s partisan crowd, motioning to them to cheer louder. After one late unforced error, he smashed his racket to the ground so hard it bounced up and nearly hit the chair umpire.

But he does less and less of those types of things since being paired up with coach Brad Gilbert. At Wimbledon, where Roddick reached the semifinals last month, Gilbert said: “That was then. He’s a new kid now. We’re starting to see a more mature Andy. Every time he’s imploded, he’s lost.”

Friday’s victory gave Roddick a 22-1 record during the summer hard-court season, but it was anything but easy. He played many points 10 feet behind the baseline in an effort to deal with the 6-foot-4 Ljubicic’s power. Each had 22 aces in a tug-of-war that ended shortly after midnight -- meaning Roddick began the match 20 years old and ended it 21.

“I think I deserve a beer after that one,” he told the crowd, which serenaded him with “Happy Birthday” after.

Roddick led a contingent of young U.S. players into the round of 32, including James Blake, Robby Ginepri and Taylor Dent. Blake, who held on to beat Sargis Sargsian of Armenia, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (6), plays Federer next.

Tanasugarn, who was born in Los Angeles, provided one of the tournament’s lighter moments when she screamed, jumped with joy and jogged toward the net to shake hands after going up, 5-3, in the second set, thinking she had won the match. After realizing she had to win one more game, she slinked back to the baseline and laughed sheepishly when a replay was shown.