Roddick serves up reminder

Brad Gilbert, the man who rescued Andre Agassi's tennis career, today installed new charge Andy Roddick as Wimbledon favourite after the young American's triumph in the Stella Artois championships at Queen's.

Roddick destroyed Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 6-3 in just under an hour with the kind of power serving that will make him difficult to handle on the Wimbledon grass courts. The 20-year-old equalled Greg Rusedski's 149mph world record serve at the weekend and fired off a remarkable 154mph serve into the net.

This raw power allied to the former world junior No1's undoubted potential makes him one of the most dangerous players on grass and, with Gilbert's help, Roddick could emerge as the natural successor to Pete Sampras.

Gilbert, who only started working with Roddick after the French Open, said: "Andy goes into Wimbledon as the favourite. He is a young guy with unlimited potential and that's very exciting.

"He came to Queen's without much confidence on grass but now he is comfortable and we can work on areas of his game this week and also play an exhibition match at Stoke Park.

"I expected this win and told Andy before Queen's started that he wouldn't lose a match. Now, Andy is starting to believe in himself and he has a massive serve and great forehand." Roddick, who has not gone beyond the third round in his previous two visits to Wimbledon, said: "I can't jump out of my shoes because there is still a week to go before Wimbledon, but if I can take this form to the championships then I will be very happy. I don't care if I hit a serve at 134 or 143mph, either way it's still a really fast serve."