Roddick Strains to Advance

Just when Andy Roddick had navigated past one obstacle, neatly averting wild card Scott Oudsema in the second round, another sprung up to impede his progress at the Countrywide Classic on Thursday night.

One particularly painful one.

Roddick appeared to tweak his back after hitting a passing shot, leading 3-1 in the third set with Oudsema serving. He later needed attention from the tour trainer and the injury was said to be a lower back strain.

Though the top-seeded Roddick managed to get through the final few games, defeating the hard-hitting Oudsema, 6-7 (3), 6-3, 6-2, at UCLA’s Los Angeles Tennis Center, the implications are unclear.

Tonight, in the quarterfinals, Roddick is scheduled to play eighth-seeded Dmitry Tursunov of Russia, who defeated 18-year-old wild card Sam Querrey of Thousand Oaks, 7-5, 6-4. Roddick, who had 21 aces, wasn’t even sure if he could finish Thursday’s match and didn’t sound confident about tonight.

“If it feels like it does right now, I don’t know if there’s a lot of hope,� he said. “But weirder things have happened.�

He said he would not “take the risk� if there was a chance of further injury. Unfortunately for Roddick, his level of pain did not decrease in the final couple of games.

In the two afternoon quarterfinals, No. 5 Andre Agassi will play No. 3 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile and No. 6 Tommy Haas of Germany faces Paul Goldstein. The second night quarterfinal, following the Roddick match, is scheduled to be No. 7 Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia against No. 4 Robby Ginepri, who defeated Kenneth Carlsen of Denmark, 7-6 (5), 3-6, 6-4.

Ginepri is gradually turning around what had been a decided slump, even briefly trying hypnosis before Wimbledon.

“I was putting more pressure on myself at the beginning of the year,� he said. “And that’s when I was not playing as well. Because I was getting tense and I wasn’t allowing my play to come out. I was fighting the demons inside of me.�

Querrey was victimized by a couple of loose service games, one in each set, and it was enough for the experienced Tursunov to take control.

“Three weeks in a row now I’ve lost in the second round of an ATP event,� Querrey said. “Eventually I should win, I would think.

“I just hit a couple of bad shots and he hit a few good shots. That’s kind of all it was.... Every time it seemed like there was a big point on his serve, he hit an ace or a big serve.�

But Roddick’s injury cast a pall on the proceedings. Oudsema, ranked No. 390, pushed him hard and stunned the crowd when he won the first-set tiebreaker. “I wasn’t real happy with the way I played the first set,� Roddick said.

His unhappiness would return, and then some, with the third-set injury.

“After he hit a backhand passing shot to break me in the third set, I saw him grab his back,� said the 20-year-old Oudsema. “I guess he tweaked something, I don’t know.

“It was very exciting and a great opportunity for me. He’s been an idol for American tennis for a while now, so to play against him was a lot of fun. I had it going for a while, but experience took over.�

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Lindsay Davenport said Thursday in a telephone interview that she would be returning to the tour at the upcoming JPMorgan Chase Open in Carson next month, and won’t be playing at the Acura Classic next week at La Costa.

Davenport has been off the circuit since mid-March because of a bad back. She said her back has been fine.

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Featured matches

Today at the Los Angeles Tennis Center on the campus of UCLA:

STADIUM COURT

Beginning at 1 p.m.

* Fernando Gonzalez vs. Andre Agassi

* Bob Bryan/Mike Bryan vs.

Mardy Fish/Justin Gimelstob

* Tommy Haas vs. Paul Goldstein

Not before 7:30

* Andy Roddick vs. Dmitry Tursunov

* Dominik Hrbaty vs. Robby Ginepri