Washington’s most important tennis event, the Legg Mason Classic, got under way this week. Most of the major names in men’s tennis are in Beijing this month, but ninth-ranked Andy Roddick, skipping the Olympics to be ready for the U.S. Open, decided to come back to the FitzGerald Tennis Center in Rock Creek Park to defend his title. Roddick is favored to win a second consecutive Legg Mason title, but he was happy to survive the first round, when all but three of the eight seeded players were upset. That included the former world no. 1 player Marat Safin, whom some put in the running to challenge Roddick. Safin resigned his first match after pulling a muscle in his neck.

Last night, fourth-seeded Tommy Haas looked evenly matched with Frenchman Nicolas Mahut in their second-round match, trading games evenly in the first set until the German broke Mahut’s third service. Mahut did not give up easily, breaking Haas to fight back to 5-5. Haas, having trouble with his serve and audibly frustrated, ended up having to contest the set in a tiebreaker, which Haas was ultimately able to win (7-4). Haas vented his spleen against the judge over more than one call, as Mahut continued to keep pace with him in the second set. At the press conference afterward, Haas said that his repeated double faults in the match “kinda drove me crazy.”