Isner ends Roddick's Open bid in 5-set thriller

NEW YORK

Andy Roddick's U.S. Open is over much sooner than he expected.

Coming off a close-as-could-be loss in the Wimbledon final, Roddick came to Flushing Meadows with a rebuilt game and some serious self-belief. Running into strong-serving, 6-9 American John Isner in the third round proved to be too much to handle.

The 55th-ranked Isner, a Greensboro Page graduate, smacked 38 aces to beat the No. 5-seeded Roddick 7-6 (3), 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 (5) last night.

It's the first time Isner has reached the fourth round at a Grand Slam tournament. Roddick, in contrast, won the 2003 U.S. Open and has been the runner-up at a major four times, most recently at the All England Club in July.

"It's tough. I mean, I don't know if I've come to a tournament with as much confidence -- into a Slam -- as I did with this tournament," Roddick said. "Leaving earlier than I want to."

His loss marked the first significant upset of Week 1 of the men's tournament: The men seeded No. 1 through No. 16 were 38-0 before Roddick and Isner stepped on court.

Perhaps what bothered Roddick the most was that he played quite well last night.

He broke Isner's serve twice and was only broken once himself. His groundstrokes were clean, with only 20 unforced errors -- 32 fewer than Isner. And then there was this little detail: Roddick won 162 points, Isner 155.

But Isner came through in the tiebreakers.

"I mean, there's a lot that's out of your hands with the way he plays. I said it before: You can't really teach 6-9, especially coming down on a serve," Roddick said. "You try to fight it off as much as you can. Sometimes you can, and sometimes it's completely out of your hands."

How does Isner do so well in such pressure-packed situations?

"I'm real poised and real under control," Isner said. "I don't panic."

Isner -- who led Georgia to the 2007 NCAA team tennis championship -- lost in the first round at five consecutive major tournaments until this one. He missed three months this season from mid-April to mid-July with mononucleosis, but last night's victory will push him into the top 50 in the rankings.

"I was watching the French Open. I remember how ticked off I was at home," Isner said. "But I think it might have been a blessing in disguise."

Now he moves on, facing No. 10 Fernando Verdasco of Spain with a quarterfinal berth at stake.

As for Roddick?

His quest for a second Grand Slam title will have to be postponed until next season.

And this defeat at a major tournament doesn't feel anything like that 16-14 fifth set against Roger Federer at Wimbledon.

"It's different. I wasn't anywhere close to winning this tournament yet," Roddick said. "There's not another chance a month and a half away."

The other big surprise of the day was 17-year-old Melanie Oudin's 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 win against 29th-seeded Maria Sharapova.

The win left the 70th-ranked Oudin in tears afterwards.

"I don't even know what to say right now," Oudin said, choking back tears in her postmatch interview in Arthur Ashe Stadium. "Thank you so much for cheering for me."

Sharapova, who has won this tournament once, usually gets those cheers. But on this cloudless day in Queens, the fans were rooting for a new potential queen -- the one who stamped the word "Believe" on her shoes, but probably didn't see this coming so soon.

"My goal was to make the top 50," she said. "But if I keep playing like this, who knows? Hopefully, I can get as high as anything."

She added this upset to one over No. 4 Elena Dementieva in the second round and a win over former No. 1 Jelena Jankovic earlier this year at Wimbledon.

In other men's play, No. 1 Roger Federer extended his winning streak to 37 at the U.S. Open, overcoming some shaky play for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 victory over No. 31 Lleyton Hewitt.

It was Federer's 14th straight victory over Hewitt, a former No. 1 who won the U.S. Open in 2001.

"I just had to believe that I could still turn this around," Federer said. "And with the great streak I have against him, I knew that if I could get back into the match then I could get back on a roll, because I've done it so many times against him."

Oudin and Sharapova followed Federer onto the show court but Sharapova did not put on a headliner's performance.

She served 21 double-faults -- the equivalent of five-plus games -- committed 63 unforced errors and clearly hasn't rounded fully into form after nearly 10 months off with a shoulder injury that forced her to miss the trip to Flushing Meadows last year.

Sharapova and Oudin traded three breaks each through the first eight games of the third set, then Oudin got a fourth break to go ahead 5-4. She responded by holding serve, closing the match with a cross-court winner off a short counterpunch from Sharapova.