Hewitt sends Roddick tumbling out

A tearful Andy Roddick limped off the show court at Roland Garros yesterday, his French Open finished but his first Wimbledon not in doubt. The 18-year-old American fell running wide for a forehand in the third set against Australian Lleyton Hewitt, injuring his hamstring as he fell.

It was immediately evident that the world's best junior was incapacitated as he lay motionless on the clay and, although heavily strapped by the physio, struggled to even serve out the remaining points before responding to the frantic hand waving from his coaching staff to quit.

The injury is bound to draw concern about the teenager's durability. He has already had arthroscopic knee surgery and he finished his last match against Michael Chang twitching like a break dancer as cramping muscles in his calves, midriff and hands brought him perilously close to conceding.

A report in yesterday's Herald Tribune also said that Roddick has been popping more anti-inflammatory pills and getting more treatment from trainers than tour veterans.

But with his uninhibited and powerful game Roddick now commands enormous expectations in American where he is seen as the new torch bearer for American tennis. Think of the foreman of the Kimberly mines when he first unearthed the rock that subsequently adorned the wedding finger of Liz Taylor.

Rough and unpolished, Roddick has brought a brand of tennis that even has Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras stopping to take a look. Agassi practises with him, Sampras says he has the big game. And so it looks.

Before the match his 6 ft 1 in frame had captured the record for the number of aces in one match (37) which he achieved on Wednesday.

Given the big serving traffic which has passed through Roland Garros since records began in 1991, the 18-year-old has already overshadowed thumpers of the calibre of Boris Becker, Sampras, Michael Stich and Goran Ivanisevic.

Although it was a worrying and dramatic exit, Roddick has put down the marker in Europe that having pushed aside some of the older generation in his emblematic defeat of Chang in the last round, his preparations are nearing completion to take on the rest of his own age group. If fit, his serve and almighty forehand is bound to do damage on the grass at Wimbledon.

Hewitt, representing the best of the Australian continent, cranky as a bag of cats and the sixth seed for the tournament, is barely two years older but infinitely more experienced. Having lost seven setpoints to hand the first set to Roddick in a tie break, the rather more durable Aussie returned in the second for 6-4 before Roddick came to grief at 2-2 in the third.

"He said to me afterwards that he'd twinged it (the muscle) in the last match. I just said bad luck, it was a great match," said Hewitt. "I've just strained it pretty good," said Roddick. "There's no tear there. I will be playing in Wimbledon. There is no serious damage. I don't think it is going to take me more than five or six days. The plan is still to play Queens."

Tim Henman ended Britain's slender hopes of having a player in the third round in a 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 exit to clay specialist Guillermo Canas while defending champion Gustavo Kuerten was detained a little longer than the three sets it took him in his first two matches but came through against Karimi Alami.

In the relatively seedless bottom half of the women's draw, Jelena Dokic added her name to the growing list of surprise exits when Hungarian Petra Mandula beat her in three sets. Dokic called the trainer to court during the match complaining of pain in her right foot.

Seeded 15 to Mandula's ranking of 131, Dokic is the sixth seed of eight to tumble from the bottom section. Despite a rousing third set during which the Yugoslavian came back from 5-2 and love 40 down, she finally lost 6-4 on the near empty Centre Court.

The remaining seeded players Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin - who celebrated her 19th birthday yesterday - advanced to round three with alarming ease, Clijsters taking just 59 minutes and Henin only nine minutes longer.

"I'm moving up gradually and so is my ranking," Henin said. "Today's win was a beautiful present but obviously the best present would be to go all the way."