It would stretch credulity to suggest that Andy Roddick will ever join a Roman institution of which Pete Sampras, Jim Courier and Jimmy Arias are American members – the Italian Open Champions’ Society.

“It’s tough because the movement is something we didn’t acquire at a young age,” the world No 3 said. “It’s like a language. If you learn it at 3 and 4, it’s a lot easier to pick up but if you’re trying to get it at 16 or 17, it’s tougher to learn. That’s the same with us on clay.”

Actually, Roddick has a decent record at the Foro Italico, with semi-final and quarter-final appearances, and yesterday, in a second-round match of deep intrigue, he defeated Gastón Gaudio, the 2004 French Open champion from Argentina, 6-1, 7-6 on his fifth match point. It is usually at Roland Garros in Paris where the clay shifts under his feet, but in Rome Roddick is very much at home.

There was feverish acclaim of his victory against an opponent who has become so disgruntled with his form of late that he mentioned the “r” word a couple of weeks ago and then thought better of it. There are not, perhaps, the opportunities awaiting Gaudio in the media mainstream that Greg Rusedski is going to be able to tap into. And Gaudio, 28, is hardly a spent force.

Temperamentally and strategically, this was a mature performance by Roddick, one illuminated by his use of subtle shots. The serve is his raison d’être, but he has become an animal of greater variety.

And he did want to get one thing off his chest – the suggestion that there is a feud between the European clay-court players and their American counterparts over the reformation of the sport and that it is simply a clay versus hard court issue. Roger Federer phoned Roddick daily during the Monte Carlo tournament at which the world No 1 indicated his dismay at the speed of change and that the players’ voices were not taken into account.

Roddick sees the dispute in terms of dollars and sense – that the ATP is charged with securing the best deal it can for the benefit of the sport and that the strongest, more financially viable events will survive and others may not. That is the way of the world.