Tennis: Teenager Roddick's charm a winner on centre court

By NICK HARRIS

LONDON - To the roll-call of Connors, Borg, Becker, Agassi and Sampras, we can now add Andy Roddick.

Whether the 18-year-old American prodigy can scale the Grand Slam heights of those five eminent predecessors remains to be seen, but yesterday the teenager followed in their footsteps by winning on Wimbledon's centre court at the first time of asking.

"I got goosebumps when I was walking out there," he said after beating Thomas Johansson, of Sweden, 7-6 (7-1), 6-1, 4-6, 7-6 (7-3) to set up a third-round meeting against three-time Wimbledon finalist Goran Ivanisevic.

With his hat brim pulled low over his eyes like a young gunslinger, Roddick outgunned Johansson, who had won his past 11 matches, all on grass. By the final set, the not-so-stoic Swede was tossing his racket to the ground in frustration.

When Roddick closed out the win with a 201 km/h serve, he gave the crowd a thumbs-up sign.

"Centre court is probably the most prestigious place to play in tennis," he said. "To get a chance at such a young age, I really cherish that.

"I definitely wasn't expecting my match to be on centre court. Then I saw the schedule. I couldn't even see my match at first - I was looking at the other courts. I thought: 'Where am I?' Then I looked at centre court and thought: 'All right. Cool'."

No teenager has made a bigger impact on his first centre-court appearance since Boris Becker in 1985 - when he was on his way to becoming the youngest men's singles champion - and Roddick's charming approach continued long after he won even more hearts by patiently signing autographs as he left the scene of his victory.

There were some things that the man who Pete Sampras has called "the future of American tennis" was not so sure about. Protocol towards the royal box was one.

"I asked the guy on the way in: 'What do I do? Where do I walk? How do I do it?' I didn't want to look like a fool."

Johansson hit 25 aces and still walked away the loser.

"I think he was a bit too good for me today," Johansson said. "I think he's going to be a top-10 player for sure in the future."

Roddick claims to be unfazed by all the attention.

"I get stopped everywhere, but by people wanting ID. There'll be 18 guys in front of me and I'll get stopped. I guess they think I'm trying to sneak into the locker rooms."

He won't be sneaking in for much longer.

- INDEPENDENT