Andy Roddick celebrated his 30th birthday on Thursday by announcing his retirement as Roger Federer, the great Grand Slam tormentor of the American, eased into the third round at the U.S. Open tennis tournament.
Roddick, a former world No. 1, who won his only major title in New York in 2003, admitted his level was struggling to match the big three of Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic and he will quit once the U.S. Open is over.
“I have decided that this is going to be my last tournament,” said Roddick.
Roddick, whose ranking is now down at 22 in the world, lost to Federer in the Wimbledon finals of 2004, 2005 and 2009.
Top seed and five-time champion Federer reached the last 32 with an easy 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 win over Germany’s Bjorn Phau and next faces Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, whom he has beaten four times in four matches.
Federer, bidding to become the first man to win six New York titles in the Open era, clinched the 90-minute match with his 15th ace after also firing 44 winners past the 32-year-old Phau, the World No. 83.
Two-time women’s champion Venus Williams was knocked out, losing 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 to German sixth seed, and 2011 semifinalist, Angelique Kerber, who also knocked the American out of the Olympics.
Kerber has now won a tour-leading 55 matches in 2012.
Sister Serena, the three-time champion, won her 60th match at the U.S. Open, advancing to the third round with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.
Williams, the Wimbledon and Olympic champion, will next face Russia’s Ekaterina Makarova, who beat her at the Australian Open this year.
Second seed Agnieszka Radwanska almost suffered a fourth successive second-round exit before fighting back from a set and 3-1 down to beat Spain’s Carla Suarez-Navarro 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
Radwanska takes on Serb 30th seed Jelena Jankovic, the 2008 runner-up, who made the third round with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Spain’s Lara Arruabarrena-Vecino.
French fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who reached the quarterfinals in 2011, was the highest men’s seed to fall when he slumped to a shock 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, 6-3 defeat to unheralded Slovak Martin Klizan.
Davydenko out
American 23rd seed Mardy Fish, a quarterfinalist in 2008, beat Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko, a semifinalist in 2006 and 2007, in a gruelling five-setter.
His 4-6, 6-7(4), 6-2, 6-1, 6-2 win was the 10th comeback victory from two sets-to-love own in the men’s tournament this year.
Meanwhile, Mahesh Bhupathi put behind his shock first-round exit from the men’s doubles event by advancing to the mixed doubles second round, while Sania Mirza partnering Bethanie Mattek-Sands also cleared the first hurdle.
Bhupathi along with his new partner, Andrea Hlavackova of Czech Republic, beat the American combo of Mitchell Krueger and Samantha Crawford.
It took the sixth-seeded Indo-Czech players just 57 minutes to outplay their unseeded opponents 6-2, 6-4.
The 13th-seeded Sania and Bethanie thrashed Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Italy’s Alberta Brianti 6-1, 6-1.
