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Jeremy Chardy should never have been in the main draw of the men’s singles event at Cincinnati, having lost to Fabio Fognini of Italy in his second and final round of qualifiers.
As fate would have it, the Frenchman entered the competition as a lucky loser and on Tuesday beat the 2003 and ’06 champion Andy Roddick for the first time in four attempts.
Chardy booked his place in the second round of the Western & Southern Open with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 win over Roddick and will now take on Denis Istomin of Uzbekistan.
The only time that Roddick looked to be in control was at 3-3 in the opening set when he had break point, but it came to nothing as the Frenchman recovered to hold serve.
Serving to stay in the set at 4-5, Roddick saved three set points, but it was Chardy who came up trumps, winning the first set in a tie-break 7-4.
The American was always up against it in the second set and although he saved a break point with a second-serve ace in the third game, Chardy got the break of serve in the seventh game of the set for a 4-3 lead and then repeated the act when Roddick served to stay in the match at 3-5, to complete a memorable victory.
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