Roddick defies pressure

The American teenager Andy Roddick is being put under the same sort of pressure here that Tim Henman is subjected to at Wimbledon. He is expected to do nothing less than challenge for the world No1 spot at the age of 19 as the US advertising industry casts around for replacements for Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras.

There are mighty vested interests to make a young man into something which he is not. Little wonder that, after hurtling to a win over Wayne Ferreira which carried him to the Masters Series quarter-finals here yesterday, Roddick made himself scarce to catch the tail-end of a rock concert.

"I'm doing my own thing and I am in it to play well for myself," he said sensibly after his 6-3, 6-2 win. "I am still working my way up." The problem is that in doing his own thing, he clearly needs to expand his game; against the South African he rarely volleyed and he never serve-and-volleyed.

Roddick now faces Fernando Gonzalez, who followed his conquest of Henman by beating Richard Krajicek, the former Wimbledon champion.