Verkerk's versatility shocks Roddick in battle of big servers

He may not be a Richard Krajicek, but Martin Verkerk is another Dutch giant with a big serve ready to try his luck at Wimbledon. He cannot be sure how well he will do, because he has never played on grass before.

Judging by his display on indoor clay in Milan in February, when he defeated Yevgeny Kafelnikov in the final to win his first ATP title, and yesterday's victory on outdoor clay against Andy Roddick to advance to the third round of the Italian Open, his debut on the lawns will be worth seeing.

The Roddick match was less suited to the Foro Italico than the OK Corral as the 6ft 2in American fifth seed and the 6ft 6in Dutch qualifier pounded serves into the dust. They arrived on Centre Court having hit a combined total of 557 aces between them this season (Roddick 294, Verkerk 263). One hour and 54 minutes later, Verkerk had added 22 aces to his total and Roddick 13. But Verkerk had also produced the more telling returns and ground-strokes to win, 6-7, 6-3, 6-4.

In their only previous match, in the first round of last year's United States Open, Roddick won in straight sets. This time Roddick became so frustrated that he was warned after hitting a ball over the stands.

Neither player dominated in the opening set, Roddick winning the tie-break, 8-6. Roddick broke in the opening game of the second set, only to lose his advantage and then be broken to 2-4. After that, the 24-year-old Verkerk took control of the match, breaking for 3-2 in the third set with a return that Roddick drove into the net. Seconds later, it was on its way out of the ground.

It would be wrong to say Verkerk made nonsense of his world ranking, No 68, because he has worked hard to get there and, as Roddick said, is another example of the depth of talent in the men's game. "I played a sloppy service game early in the second set," the American added, "after that, he started playing really well. I expected him to serve big, but the way he returned and was hitting winners with his ground-strokes was really impressive."

Verkerk said he liked the emotion Roddick puts into his game, "the way he plays with the crowd and tries to impress upon people that he is Andy Roddick who has a big game." The Dutchman did not allow the American to strut into his mind. "We were fighting, man-to-man, and I won," he said.

So will Verkerk's big serve, solid back-court play and determined attitude work for him at Wimbledon? "I've never played on grass before in my life," he said. "I'm playing Rosmalen and Wimbledon for the first time. I'm looking forward to it, but I always thought it would be tough for me to play on grass because I'm pretty big to get to low shots, and my knees were not always as strong as they are now."

Until he was 14, Verkerk added, he was small. He played football as well as tennis, but was better at tennis. "I was a forward, like [Alessandro] Del Piero," he smiled, "but I didn't like that people were kicking my legs all the time." The Wimbledon umpires do not allow such behaviour.

* Kim Clijsters, the No 1 seed, started her campaign to regain the world No 2 ranking with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Emilie Loit, of France in the second round of the German Open in Berlin yesterday. The Belgian returned to action after a week off which saw her lose the No 2 spot to Venus Williams. Jennifer Capriati, the fourth seed, went through with a comfortable 6-4, 6-4 win over Francesca Schiavone, of Italy, in her first match of the season on the red clay of Europe.