Late in his mostly blah summer, Andy Roddick on Wednesday night suddenly looked so clear-headed, so sublime and so dominant in the US Open first round that at 40-love in the final game his opponent just went ahead and quit.

A little bit miffed at Roddick for his previous serve and a lot bummed with himself for his play, Fabrice Santoro, 35, the oldest man in the draw in his record 65th Grand Slam event, just stood there upright behind the baseline, refusing to crouch into a set position to return serve. Roddick waited, but Santoro stood. Roddick served, and Santoro ignored the ball.

He simply began walking to the net for the handshake after an unusually brisk 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 loss in 87 minutes, and Roddick’s best tennis night in “four or five months” — his words — had a little downer of an ending. “To end it like that, it was kind of, I guess, disappointing,” Roddick said.

On the penultimate point at 30-love, Roddick had blasted a 140-mph serve for a 14th ace and a first attempt to decapitate Santoro, well, at least if you’re asking Santoro. The ball whirred over Santoro’s head as he ducked, and later he blithely called himself “a little bit disappointed” with the serve, called Roddick “a good guy” but said, “He served right at me for sure, yeah. That’s a good strategy sometimes,” but not given the runaway score.

Roddick said he’d aimed for the “T” but missed and said, “It was a bad miss, but it was a miss that I hit pretty hard.” Even as he prepares to play the onrushing Latvian Ernests Gulbis in the second round, and consults Patrick McEnroe anew for short-term guidance, Roddick said he would seek out Santoro in ensuing days to reiterate he had not used him for target practice.

... contd.