Newz Forum: OTHER: TENNIS: Roddick breaks own serve record in Queen's Club win

LONDON -- Andy Roddick broke his own record for fastest serve with a 153 mph ace Friday during a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Paradorn Srichaphan at the Queen's Club grass-court tournament.

Roddick served the ace at 1-0, 15-0 in the second set.

"I wasn't trying to hit it any harder than normal and I didn't really realize until the crowd started cheering and I saw Paradorn smiling," Roddick said. "I was surprised because it was against the wind and I didn't think I had that in me."

It's the third time this year Roddick has improved the record. He had a 150 mph serve in a Davis Cup match against Austria in February, and another 152 mph serve in Davis Cup play against Sweden in April.

"I can't feel the difference between 146 mph and 153," Roddick said. "I can feel when I hit it big, but if you're asking if I know that's it, I have no idea. In my mind, it still counts as just one point in the match. I'm just happy to get through more than I am about hitting a big serve."

Roddick, the top-seeded defending champion at Queens, broke the seventh-seeded Paradorn twice in the opening set. After an exchange of breaks early in the second set, Roddick won four of five games to close out a 66-minute victory.

He will face Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals. The Australian, a three-time Queen's champion, won the last four games of each set to defeat Russia's Igor Andreev 6-3, 7-5.

Hewitt extended his career record at Queen's to 20-1. His only defeat came against Sebastien Grosjean in the 2003 quarterfinals.

"I felt like I served pretty well," Hewitt said. "I just played a loose game in the second set, which put me behind and under pressure for the rest of the set, and gave him a bit more confidence as well.

"But I had a lot of opportunities and didn't believe I was out of the second set at all."

The fifth-seeded Grosjean downed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic 6-3, 6-3 and will play Hyung-Taik Lee of South Korea, who defeated Karol Beck of Slovakia 6-3, 6-4.

AP NEWS

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CBS

[Edited on 6/11/2004 by Gibbs Baby!!!]

I think they should do the serve in kilometers per hour because then it would sound way more intimidating. 153mph is like 230km/h

Either way, that's one heck of a fast serve. I wonder if it hurts when it smacks off your head?

Originally posted by Gibbs Baby!!!
Either way, that's one heck of a fast serve. I wonder if it hurts when it smacks off your head?

I wonder whether it will kill you if you take it in the head

I doubt so, I saw an episode of Jacka$$ once where they had hai-alia (sp?) players throwing oranges at the guys, they must get up to speeds of that magnitude, and I'd think oranges would be harder at that speed than tennis balls.

That's unreal, that is one fast serve.

i didnt think there was a difference between 146 and 153, its just plain old fast.