Roddick Doesn’t Let Dent Find a Way Out

Well, at least Taylor Dent of Huntington Beach aced the news conference.

His on-court aces were scarce, to put it mildly -- two in all -- in a truly miserable experience on Rod Laver Arena at the Australian Open Friday night in the third round. The misery came from all sides.

Andy Roddick handed out the physical punishment, defeating Dent, 6-2, 6-0, 6-2, in 1 hour 11 minutes, and the sight of Dent’s dejected entourage afterward in the corridors told the one-sided story.

Additional castigation, of the verbal variety, came from a spectator who loudly complained about paying good money for her seats. Dent replied, on the court, that it was “costing me a lot of pride to stay out here.”

“Oh, boy. I think she owes me money for staying out there, actually,” Dent said, smiling, in the interview room.

This time, the statistics told the truth. Dent double-faulted 11 times and had his serve broken eight times. That is no misprint. Roddick was eight of 11 on break-point opportunities.

Dent, 22, was in a world of hurt during and afterward.

“That was definitely, without question, the worst tennis experience of my entire life -- not only professional career, but my entire life,” he said.

Give Roddick, the top-seeded player here and the U.S. Open champion, some credit for the systematic dismantling. He and Dent had split their previous meetings, 1-1, both last year, but Roddick is at another altitude, in terms of game and in confidence since their last match at Queen’s Club in June.

Another personality trait prevented Roddick from taking his foot off the gas pedal.

“The thing is you’re so paranoid that, OK -- at least the way my mind works, you’re up a break in the third, he breaks back, you’re on serve, it’s a battle again,” he said.

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In the afternoon, after the Dent defeat, there was another one-sided, third-round thrashing on Rod Laver Arena. Second-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland won 14 consecutive games as he defeated 19-year-old wild card Todd Reid of Australia, 6-3, 6-0, 6-1, in 1 hour 14 minutes today.

“That is nice. That doesn’t happen every day in a best-of-three match, it’s not possible, or is it?” Federer asked.

Reid had spurred the imagination of the public here with his five-set win in the previous round, surviving cramps and a bout of vomiting against Sargis Sargsian of Armenia.

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Top-seeded Mike and Bob Bryan of Camarillo got past a difficult second-round test, defeating the Argentine team of Martin Garcia and Sebastien Prieto, 6-7 (7), 7-6 (3), 6-0.