Written by DCist contributor Joe Parilla Defending champion Juan Martin Del Potro defeated #1 seed Andy Roddick 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (6) in the Legg Mason Tennis Classic final on Sunday. In a scintillating match between the tournament’s top seeds, Del Potro overcame a solid performance by Roddick to become the first back-to-back winner at the Washington ATP event since Andre Agassi in 1999. Del Potro, the #6 ranked player in the world, displayed an extraordinarily…

In his fourth match of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, a semifinal contest against fellow American John Isner, #1 Andy Roddick was tested early and often, losing the his first set of the tournament and struggling to convert on break points. But finally, on serve at 5-5 in the third and decisive set, Roddick solved the powerful 6′ 9″ Isner (the last unseeded player standing) to earn a break, following up with a solid service…

You go into a match with Ivo Karlovic assuming you’re not going to break his serve. Or, in the words of Andy Roddick, “getting down an early break against Karlovic is a recipe for disaster.” Fortunately for Roddick, he had never before dropped a service game to the Croat, a point raised he raised last evening in anticipation of the match and worried would jinx him today. It well may have. Karlovic broke Roddick early…

Andy Roddick earned his 500th career win yesterday evening, defeating fellow American Sam Querrey in Rock Creek Park. The milestone puts him in an elite rank of only four active players that includes Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, and Carlos Moya. The win puts him in today’s quarterfinal round. Service was uncharacteristically off for both players in the early going of the match, with each dropping their first service game in a back-and-forth set. Querrey showed…

Crowd favorite Andy Roddick had little trouble with Benjamin Becker last night, cruising to a straight set victory (6-3, 6-2) in his first match of the tournament. After an extended break since his defeat to Roger Federer in the Wimbeldon final, Roddick was far from the top of his service game, landing only 58 percent of his firsts and routinely hitting in the one hundred and teens — though at one point he did hit…

Things heat up in Rock Creek Park this evening as the man many local tennis fans have been waiting for, Andy Roddick, finally takes the court at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic. Roddick, in his first action since Wimbledon, will face Benjamin (no relation to Boris) Becker no earlier than 7 p.m., after Becker outlasted American Robby Ginepri last night in a closely contested match featuring multiple tiebreakers. Roddick was originally scheduled to play last…

Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt, the 2007 champion, was the first big name to take the court in the 2009 Legg Mason Tennis Classic, drawing the up-and-coming American Donald Young and dispatching him in straight sets (matches at the Classic are best-of-three sets as opposed to the best-of-five you see in Grand Slam events). Hewitt willed himself early on with a sharp, point-by-point “come on” after braking Young’s serve in the first set. Young, kicking off the…

Washington tennis fans have just barely had time to digest the Washington Kastles’ triumphant World Team Tennis championship. But on the heels of their dramatic victory, it’s time once again for a longer-standing rite of D.C. summers: the Legg Mason Tennis Classic.

With Andy Roddick’s unexpected early departure, much of the star power of this year’s Legg Mason Classic went with him. At the semifinal matches on Saturday, fans had the chance to watch one of the two remaining seeded players eliminate the other, followed by a match between two relative unknowns. At the afternoon semifinal match, Tommy Haas struggled to make any headway in ending the winning streak of Juan Martín del Potro, losing the first…

The top seed at the Legg Mason Classic, the fast-hitting Andy Roddick, has not exactly coasted on his way to defend his championship this year. In his second-round match last night, he dropped the first set to Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank, 4-6. Roddick won the second set, but Schwank pressed Roddick into a tie-breaker for the match, which Roddick won without too much trouble. Other players to advance to the quarterfinal were Serbia’s Viktor Troicki, over…