Paul Goldstein watched his second round opponent, Radek Stepanek, take down James Blake in the finals of the Countrywide Classic in Los Angeles two weeks ago. The one thing he took away from that match was how often Stepanek went to the drop shot.

But it wasn’t the drop shot that did-in the Rockville native and fan favorite. Goldstein broke Stepanek’s serve just once Wednesday and fell in three sets, 3-6, 6-4, 4-6.

“I felt over the course of two hours and three sets I should get more than one break,” said Goldstein, who turns 31 on Friday. “I looked up after the first set and his first service percentage was 80 percent. Tough to break that serve at 80 percent.”

Stepanek’s serve held up all game. He finished with 14 aces and hit in 72 percent of his first serves. He was consistently serving at over 120 mph and hit his spots as well.

This story continues below
Advertisement

“I never felt like I was really on it from the standpoint of being able to read where the ball was going prior to actually making contact with the ball,” Goldstein said.

It was a bit of a surprise for Goldstein, who considers his return one of the better parts of his game. He never got comfortable, though, and was able to score on just 22 percent of Stepanek’s first serves.

Goldstein had a chance to break serve for the second time in the third game of the final set. He was up 40-0 but Stepanek reeled off five straight points to go up 2-1. The game before Goldstein did the same thing to hold serve.

Stepanek only broke Goldstein’s serve three times in the match, but two of those were to win sets.

Stepanek had to get treatment on his left leg up 4-3 in the third set, but the injury didn’t slow him down, as he won 10 of the next 15 points to advance to the third round.

Goldstein’s loss was extra disappointing because his family, which lives in the area, gets to see him play live rarely.

“Now they don’t get a chance to see me play again,” he said. “It’s a bummer for me.”