Roddick gets bid going for fifth title

LONDON – Andy Roddick opened his bid for a fifth Queen’s Club title by beating Kristof Vliegen of Belgium, 6-1, 6-4, in the second round on Tuesday.

The No. 2-seeded American broke twice to win the first set in 18 minutes. Vliegen played better after he had his right ankle taped, but Roddick broke again to lead 5-4 and served out the match with his 11th ace in his first grass match of the season.

“Coming from the clay to the grass is one of the happiest days of my year,” Roddick said. “There’s not a lot of adjustments to be made to my game to suit the grass. I feel I can take it for what it is and just get out there and play.

“I thought I served well today. I thought I returned well at times. It was pretty solid all around. I just kind of wanted to get it in before there was a chance for it to rain on us. I was happy with it.”

Other second-round winners were fourth-seeded Gael Monfils, No. 6 James Blake, No. 8 Mardy Fish, and No. 10 Feliciano Lopez.

Blake, the 2006 runner-up to Lleyton Hewitt, held off Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic, 6-2, 7-6 (4).

The American dominated the first set, breaking in the opening game and again to lead 4-1. In the second set, Blake had to fight off three break points to hold for 1-1, before claiming victory in the tiebreaker.

Monfils edged Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (5), and Fish also struggled to put away Michael Llodra of France, 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-3. (AP)