Roddick Serves Notice to Tour

This wasn’t a total rip-down job or a massive renovation project.

How could it be with U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick and his serve as the foundation?

Instead, Roddick had a quick summit with his coach, Brad Gilbert, after a recent semifinal setback against Vince Spadea in Scottsdale, Ariz. The meetings of the minds produced a slight change in Roddick’s game, the decision to impose his will at the net during matches, not just in practice.

Redecoration should always be this quick. Roddick has rendered three respected players almost mundane at the Pacific Life Open, rolling through the likes of Jan-Michael Gambill, Marat Safin of Russia and Nicolas Escude of France.

Escude went quietly under a barrage of aces and selective net attack. The third-seeded Roddick defeated Escude, 6-3, 6-2, in 1 hour 10 minutes in the fourth round at Indian Wells Tennis Garden on Wednesday night.

He served 17 aces, including one impressive stretch in the middle of the first set in the fifth and seventh games, hitting aces on seven of eight points. The moments of difficulty were rare, as he saved four break points in all, and came away unscathed after a second-set tumble.

The loss to Spadea may actually prove to have a long-term dividend.

“I felt like when I played Spadea, he was kind of chipping a bunch of returns deep and then we were neutral after that,” Roddick said. “So, you know, Brad and I kind of went back to the drawing board. We finally made up our minds that you can work on it as much as you want to in practice, but if you don’t set your mind to actually go do it, it’s not going to improve.

“I came to the net a couple times against Spadea and just looked terrible. It’s something that I think I have to commit to doing a little bit more.”

Roddick will face No. 9 Tim Henman of Britain in the quarterfinals Friday. Henman, likewise, had little trouble in his match, defeating Wayne Arthurs of Australia, 6-1, 6-3. Henman has won two of three matches against Roddick, all of them last year, but Roddick’s victory came in the first round of the U.S. Open in 2003.

“It’s going to be a tough match,” Roddick said. “Obviously Tim has shown for years and years and years that he’s capable of beating anyone. I’m definitely going to have to serve well because he’s great at making you play well on your own service games. If he puts a racket on it, he puts it in play.”

The other two men’s matches went three sets. James Blake beat Taylor Dent of Huntington Beach, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-1; and Irakli Labadze of the Republic of Georgia rallied against Agustin Calleri of Argentina, winning, 1-6, 6-3. 6-4.

Labadze is almost like the mystery guest among the quarterfinalists. This is the first time he has won three ATP matches in a tournament, and 2004 has been a road of losses and pain, as in suffering a left ankle sprain in Memphis.

“I’ve been losing everywhere first round,” said Labadze, who had been 0-4 this year before coming to Indian Wells. “I lost maybe six, seven first rounds before this. In Memphis, last tournament, last time, I got injury for three weeks. I was not expecting really to even win a round here.”

The match between Dent and Blake was a bit like a scrimmage for the second Davis Cup singles spot behind Roddick for the upcoming quarterfinal against Sweden. Though it appears as though Mardy Fish, who lost to Roger Federer in straight sets on Tuesday has the edge, Blake is obviously picking up ground with each victory in the desert.

Dent, who double faulted nine times and had just one ace, disappeared from contention when he seemed to run out of steam in the third, dropping the final set in 26 minutes.

“I don’t think I’ve played too many bad matches this year,” Blake said. “I’m pretty confident I’m playing well. I know I can get the job done at Davis Cup.”

There were two women’s quarterfinals, which offered a sizable contrast. Third-seeded Lindsay Davenport, a two-time champion at Indian Wells, defeated qualifier Gisela Dulko of Argentina, 6-3, 6-2, and has not lost a set in four matches.

In the semifinals, Davenport will play Nathalie Dechy of France, who defeated Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia, 7-6 (1), 6-3.

“I’ve been looking forward to this tournament since I was off about four or five weeks ago,” Davenport said.