Andy Roddick won the first Masters Series of his career by overcoming last
year's Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian 6-1 6-3 in a twice-delayed final in
Montreal.
The sixth-seeded American thus made up for his disappointment in last year's
Canadian Masters Series final, when he was unexpectedly beaten by another
Argentine, Guillermo Canas.
This time the greater question was whether the repeated rain would delay
Roddick more than an opponent who found it hard to do himself justice.
It was the shortest final in Montreal since Ivan Lendl beat John McEnroe by
the same score 14 years ago.
Roddick backed up his blitzing serve with a much more solid baseline game than
a year ago, and was able to win points in a wider variety of ways.
It was the 20-year-old's biggest title since springing to prominence three
years ago, when he was prematurely burdened with the mantle of the successor to
Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
Roddick lightened that at least a little, and made it clear before the match
that winning the title was his goal, rather than aiming for a good performance
and letting the result take care of itself.
"I am extremely excited," he said. "I really wanted this. But it's
difficult to come on and off in the rain, especially when you are close to
winning.
"I didn't mind the one at the start but the other one (at 4-2 in the second
set) was different. I felt like I was so close and I went to the locker room and
I was jittery."
However there was no doubt that Roddick would finish off the job. The one-hour
wait led to only seven more minutes of action as Roddick held serve and then
broke Nalbandian for the fifth time in the match to finish it.
It had been equally fast one-way traffic at the beginning. Roddick broke at
once, reached 3-0 quickly and wrapped up the set in less than half an hour.
The only moments when a nervous Nalbandian looked as though he might get into
it were in the opening game when he held a break point but could not return a
second serve, and also when he broke back for one-all in the second set.
Parity lasted less than five minutes however as Roddick set up a consistent
attack from the baseline and saw Nalbandian unable to create his usual mixture
of power and accuracy with his ground strokes.
Although Roddick has been adding to his repertoire more frequent moves
forward, he almost never attempted it this time against an opponent who can be
outstandingly good at punishing net players.
"I think I am better player than before and I really wanted to win," said
Roddick. "I hope it will be a good stepping stone for the Open.
"I know that I am playing some of the best tennis in the world but once the
US Open starts (in a fortnight) no-one will care about winning Montreal.
"I know I will have my time - it's just a matter of getting there. It can't
happen overnight. It needs time, but I have faith that it will happen."
Roddick also won two bets to supplement the title, the trophy and the £250,000
he earned. Because he won the title, coach Brad Gilbert has to go sky-diving
with him and trainer Cicero De Castro to shave his head.
"Anyone else want a bet," Roddick said, looking at the tennis writers in the
press conference. "I see a lot of hair to be chopped off.
"Brad's got to jump out of a plane with me. I have done it four times before
and he hasn't. In fact, he is scared looking out of the second floor balcony, so
he might mess his pants."
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