Tennis-Roddick sees off resilient Gimelstob at Wimbledon

LONDON, June 25 (Reuters) Third seed Andy Roddick started his Wimbledon campaign with a comfortable 6-1 7-5 7-6 first-round victory over fellow American Justin Gimelstob today.

Roddick, runner-up at the grasscourt grand slam in 2004 and 2005, broke his opponent twice in the first set to speed to a 5-0 lead before Gimelstob pulled a game back on his own serve.

Roddick then served for the set, capturing it with an ace.

Gimelstob displayed some energetic acrobatics to make the rest of the match more of a contest. In the second set it was only in the 11th game that Roddick was able to break his opponent, who was helped along by a couple of lucky netcords.

Games went with serve in the third set until the tiebreak which Roddick, a former U.S. Open champion, sealed 7-3.

Reuters SR RN2245