Andy Roddick overturned a 5-0 deficit in a third set tiebreak to beat France's Paul-Henri Mathieu and the weather on another rain-hit day at Wimbledon on Wednesday. The tiebreak turnaround enabled the American third seed to wrap up the fourth round match he began on Tuesday 6-2, 7-5, 7-6 (8/6) before a downpour forced a lengthy break in play.
Roddick, who now faces the winner of the all-French clash between Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, admitted he had begun to get a little stir crazy hanging around in the changing rooms and was relieved to have got his match finished.
"There's no question the rain makes it tough," he said. "You are sitting in the locker room the whole time knowing if it clears you could be on court in 20 minutes. That's quite a prospect to carry on for three or four days.
"Then boredom takes over and we all start getting a little loopy." Despite the delays, the American was reluctant to back Rafael Nadal's criticism of the tournament referee over his decision not to schedule matches on Sunday to help clear the backlog.
Nadal, who took three days to complete his third round win over Robin Soderling, is now facing the prospect of playing every day if he is to repeat last year's run to the final while Roger Federer has not played since last Friday. "The things that you love about Wimbledon, with the tradition, ended up making it tough this time. But I still love the tradition," Roddick said.
"It has made it tougher especially on Rafa's side which is maybe why I'm sitting here saying it is okay." Federer has had an extra rest as a result of the withdrawal of his fourth round opponent, Tommy Haas, through injury. But Roddick argued that the lay-off would not necessarily help the defending champion's cause.
"There's no question he is probably not going to be as sharp coming off a five-day lay-off than playing every day. But fortunately for him it came at the best possible time, it is not like its been sunny and we've all been getting practice in.
"We've been stuck in a locker room for nine hours a day and he's been chilling out, taking the double-decker red bus tour. "So I'm not worried about Roger -- I think I'll save the tears on that one."
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