DELRAY BEACH, FLA. (AP) - Andy Roddick is hoping to turn around his dismal start to the season at the Delray Beach International Tennis Championships.
The fourth-seeded Roddick, who has slipped to No. 30 in the rankings, usually does well in the first couple of months of the year. He traditionally has fared well at the indoor tournaments in February _ he’s won the Memphis and San Jose titles three times each.
But he’s battling injuries. A right hamstring injury forced him to abandon his second-round match at the Australian Open, and he hurt his right ankle during his opening match at San Jose two weeks ago.
Roddick will face Philipp Petzschner of Germany in the first round at Delray Beach on Tuesday night. The American is 2-3 this year, his worst start joined the ATP Tour full-time in 2001.
“Honestly, I’m not as concerned with ranking,” Roddick said. “I just want to get into a flow again rather than some days on, some days off. I just want to play continuously for a while.”
In an all-American first-round match on Monday, Ryan Sweeting swept Donald Young 6-1, 6-1 on a windy day near the beach. Eighth-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia also advanced, cruising past wild card Tommy Haas 6-4, 6-3.
Sweeting never offered Young a break-point opportunity in the 52-minute match. He also won 21 of 23 first-serve points that went in play.
Young struggled with his serve and was broken on four of nine break chances he presented to Sweeting.
“It was quicker than I expected and I don’t think Donald played his best tennis today at all,” Sweeting said. “I think he was struggling with the wind a little bit and made a lot of unforced errors.
“From the beginning my plan was to just be consistent and keep the ball in play while being aggressive. I wanted to make a lot of first serves.”
The 19-year-old Tomic won his first tour match since reaching the fourth round of the Australian Open, where he lost to Roger Federer. He also won the one Davis Cup match he played earlier this month.
Roddick, who grew up nearby in Boca Raton, first played this tournament in 2000, the year he won the Australian and U.S. Open junior titles. This is his first appearance here since 2003.
Before practicing with Philipp Kohlschreiber on Monday morning, Roddick said he’s feeling much better and started running a few days ago. He’s hoping that will translate into a good outcome this week.
“It’s just a matter of getting back to where you’re playing a good numbers game; your winners are more than your unforced errors and you’re playing solid on the big points,” Roddick said. “That just comes from match play.
“You can come out here and practice and hit shots all day, but for me I just want to get to the point where I’m comfortable playing matches again.”
In other first-round matches: Dudi Sela of Israel defeated American wild card Denis Kudla 6-4, 6-3 and Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan defeated Matthew Ebden of Australia 6-2, 6-3.
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