Andy Roddick advances to 4th round at French Open for 1st time in career; Dementieva loses

Roddick reaches French Open 4th round for 1st time

PARIS — Andy Roddick reached the fourth round of the French Open for the first time in his career by beating Marc Gicquel of France 6-1, 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday.

Roddick is only the second American to reach the fourth round at Roland Garros since Andre Agassi in 2003, the same year Roddick won his only major title at the U.S. Open. Robby Ginepri also made the French Open’s fourth round last year.

“It’s three matches,” said Roddick, who had seven aces and only 11 unforced errors. “It’s a lot better than I’ve done here before.”

Roddick has reached at least the semifinals at the other three Grand Slam tournaments. Besides winning the 2003 U.S. Open, he is also a two-time runner-up at Wimbledon. But at the French Open, Roddick’s best performance before this year was reaching the third round in his 2001 debut.

“I like my chances maybe more than the other years,” Roddick said. “I feel like I’m moving a little bit better on this stuff. I’m able to kind of slide into my forehand.”

Tommy Haas of Germany also advanced to the fourth round, beating Jeremy Chardy of France 7-5, 6-3, 4-6, 6-4.

On the women’s side, fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva was upset by No. 30 Samantha Stosur of Australia 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. Dementieva follows No. 3 Venus Williams out of the tournament. The American lost in straight sets on Friday.

Stosur converted seven of her 15 break points against Dementieva, the 2004 runner-up at Roland Garros.

“I just feel I’m far away from … being in good shape,” Dementieva said. “I feel like I couldn’t perform any better.”

Stosur has never reached the fourth round at the clay-court Grand Slam tournament. She reached the same stage at the 2006 Australian Open, but has never made the quarterfinals at a major.

“As that match went on today I knew I could get there, because I was playing (well) enough and was handling the conditions and everything maybe a little bit better than her,” Stosur said.

Seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova easily advanced , defeating Melinda Czink of Hungary 6-1, 6-3.

“I was just doing my thing,” Kuznetsova said. “I was depending on myself and not on her. … I think I controlled all of the match.”

Kuznetsova, the 2004 U.S. Open champion, reached the French Open final in 2006 but lost to Justine Henin.

No. 9 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus completed her comeback over 22nd-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 5-7, 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday. Suarez Navarro won the first set Friday and Azarenka took the second before play was suspended by darkness.

No. 12 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, No. 24 Aleksandra Wozniak of Canada and unseeded Virginie Razzano of France also advanced.

Later Saturday, three-time French Open finalist Roger Federer and No. 4 Novak Djokovic were scheduled to play, as were No. 2 Serena Williams and No. 5 Jelena Jankovic.