One of my readers, Romana Cvitkovic, attended Troicki - Roddick match, and all other matches Viktor played in Washington. She also had a chance to meet Viktor!! She was kind enough to write coverage of the match and to send us photos and video from the tournament! Thanks to Romana very much for that! Here is what she wrote:

"After a shaky match against world #88 Bobby Reynolds in the 2nd round, down 2-4 in the 3rd set, who could have predicted that two evenings later he would beat #9 Andy Roddick? But beat him he did! I had a chance all week as a volunteer to watch tennis and do statistics on stadium court and even I didn't expect this win being a fellow Croatian! I had a chance to meet Viktor here in DC only a few days ago when I wished him luck in serbo-croatian when he was on the practice courts. He was surprised to see someone from his country at the tournament and we got to chatting about DC weather, his life in Belgrade, and why the Serbian Olympic Committee decided to not have him at the Olympics this year. He was very pleasant in person with a great smile and seemed to live, breathe, and eat tennis and admire his country Serbia.

Now onto the match!


The first set, Roddick was in clear domination winning 91% of his 1st serve points and only taking no more than 20 minutes to close it. Viktor didn't look comfortable on the court and couldn't find his rhythm serving or rallying with only 9% of his 1st return serve points won. It seemed like it would be a quick quarterfinal win for Roddick. As the set was coming to a close, would-be Roddick fans suddenly turned into avid Troicki fans with the commentator finally saying his name correctly. People paid good money to see this match and they wanted to get excited about something even if it meant cheering for the "other guy."

The start of the second set was a different story. As Troicki began leading Roddick, he also starting losing fans -- now people were worried he might actually have a chance to avenge his lose this year in Miami to him. Now it was Roddick who was having trouble returning Troicki's serve and Troicki out-aced him 5 to 3.

At about 1-0 for Roddick in the 3rd set, play was suspended for about 50 minutes due to rain. This could have been potentially detrimental to Viktor's psyche if he let the moment get to him. He could have realized that he had the potential to beat a great player and gotten nervous about it, or it could have given him unhuman determination and propelled him to a win -- only time would tell. As play continued and all the serbian fans sat together outnumbered 20 to 5000 yelling encouragements on court, the entire stadium realized that Viktor was in it to win and Roddick's unforced errors kept creeping their way up, jeopardizing a repeat title. The fire in Viktor's eyes was evident as Roddick kept sending balls into the net and losing his serve. Viktor realized that all he had to do was return the ball and Roddick would make the mistake -- and this is exactly what happened. At matchpoint, Roddick's backhand went into the net and it was all over. Viktor fell to his knees in joy, yelled in serbian and then shook hands with a stunned Andy Roddick at the net.

Now, did Viktor win the match or Andy lose it? It's really an individual opinion, but in my eyes, the winner came out on top and showed his heart on his sleeve. Roddick on the other hand went on a 15-minute screaming and throwing fiasco in the basement locker room before the media session. He even threw a raquet at the lockers just missing several people's heads including mine and completely crushing it. He's just not used to losing here, being 25-4 now. After being victorious in 2001, 2005, and 2007, I guess Roddick will just have to try tying Agassi's 4 titles at this tournament some other year. But not on Viktor's turf.

Viktor is in his first ATP semifinals today against Igor Kunitsyn of Russia at 7PM eastern time."



Romana, thanks one more time and I can't wait to hear from you again!

(story and Images/Romana Cvitkovic)

Viktor's win!