Roddick, Canas Through to First Masters Series Final

August 5, 2002 - 0:0
TORONTO -- American Andy Roddick overcame Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-3 on Saturday to power his way into the final of the $2.95 million Canada Tennis Masters and a meeting with red-hot Argentine Guillermo Canas.

Earlier in the day, the unseeded Canas claimed his fourth world top-10 victim of the week by upsetting third seed Tommy Haas 6-4 3-6 7-6 (7-5) to reach the first Masters Series final of his career.

In another dominant performance, Roddick needed just 53 minutes to sweep aside 14th seed Novak and book a place in his sixth final of the season and the first Masters Series final of his career.

Once again, Roddick's booming serve did most of the damage, the 12th-seeded American has dropped just one set in five matches and has only been broken twice in 52 service games.

Novak claimed one of those breaks when he trailed Roddick 3-1 in the first set, but the 19-year-old would not be broken again.

With the backing of a capacity center court crowd, Roddick matched Novak shot-for-shot from the baseline, breaking Novak again to take the first set and once more early in the second to seize control of the match, Reuters reported.

"The pace was pretty quick and I didn't have much time to think, but that might have helped me a bit," laughed Roddick.

"I've been playing pretty well the last two weeks.

I really like the hardcourts, it's my favorite surface.