Dubai: Red-hot Andy Roddick out-powered second seed and world No 2 Rafael Nadal 7-6 (5), 6-2 to enter the semifinals of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships late last night.
In the last four stage, the American will meet Serbian Novak Djokovic, who knocked out Russian Igor Andreev 6-2, 6-1 in the last quarterfinals.
Earlier, fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia outplayed Briton Andy Murray 7-5, 6-4, after Spaniard Feliciano Lopez carved out a 6-4, 6-3 result against compatriot David Ferrer.
Roddick, who last week fell to Robin Soderling in the quarterfinals in Memphis, looked the more solid of the two. Making his Dubai debut, Roddick has yet to drop serve in three rounds.
Amazing control
Two weeks back, Roddick won his 24th career title in San Jose and ever since has been showing amazing control over his shots. His serve continues to be his mainstay and had a record 236kph, breaking the Dubai record by one kph.
By the end of the first set, the sixth seed had sent down an amazing 12 aces, of which four came during the crucial tie-break, compared to the two from Nadal. The American also won 23 of the 28 first serve points compared to the 28 from 41 by Nadal.
"His serves made the difference tonight," Nadal felt. "I struggled with my forehand returns and missed many passing shots. That's tough against big servers like Roddick."
At the end of one hour and 47 minutes the American was more than relieved. "This has been a satisfying match and the settings were just perfect," he said.
The first quarterfinal barely rose to any dizzy heights with Ferrer showing a little more enthusiasm in carrying through with his shots.
"I've had my ups and downs. But Dubai seems to be a lucky place for me," said Lopez, the lowest rank-ed quarterfinalist at No 41. "The key was to stay aggressive as that is the only way to beat David," Lopez said.
Early lead
In the second quarterfinal, Murray and Davydenko went neck and neck with the Russian obtaining a crucial break in the 11th game for 6-5 to then hold serve and win the set 7-5.
The second was different as Murray held serves on either side of a break for an early 3-0 lead. But Davydenko was far from finished as he fought back for 4-3 on a couple of breaks and then held serve for 5-3 to finally win the set and match 6-4.
"It was important for me to change something and today I stayed aggressive and that worked," Davydenko said. "My focus was to ensure that I kept my mistakes to a minimum, while playing my normal shots with a lot of concentration."
Results
Quarterfinals: Feliciano Lopez bt David Ferrer (4) 6-3, 6-4; Nikolay Davydenko (5) bt Andy Murray 7-5, 6-4; Andy Roddick (6) bt Rafael Nadal (2) 7-6 (5), 6-2.
Order of Play:
Centre Court:
Start at 2 pm: Nikolay Davydenko vs Feliciano Lopez; Daniel Nestor/Nenad Zimonjic vs Martin Damm/Pavel Vizner.
Start at 7 pm: Novak Djokovic vs Andy Roddick; Feliciano Lopez/Rafael Nadal or Mahesh Bhupathi/Mark Knowles vs Simon Aspelin /Julian Knowle.
