Three-time former champion Andy Roddick of the United States has won
his 501st match to reach the semifinals of the Legg Mason Tennis
Classic in Washington. Roddick beat Ivo Karlovic of Croatia to reach
the final four.
In front of a sell-out crowd, Andy Roddick took
advantage of Karlovic's unforced errors to win their quarterfinal in
two tiebreakers, 7-6, 7-6.
Roddick was down a break in both sets
to the two-meters, eight centimeter tall Karlovic. Afterwards, the
American said he felt lucky to win the match.
"Getting down an
early break against Karlovic is a recipe for disaster. That's
absolutely not the way you want to go about managing that match. And I
consider myself fortunate to be able to get out of it one time, much
less two times," he said.
Roddick, a three-time champion at this
event, takes on countryman John Isner, a three-sets winner over Tomas
Berdych of the Czech Republic (6-3, 6-7, 6-2).
The other
semifinal is an all-South American contest between defending champion
Juan Martin Del Potro of Argentina and Fernando Gonzalez of Chile.
Del
Potro did not play Friday when his opponent, Sweden's Robin Soderling,
withdrew with an elbow injury. Gonzalez scored a straight-sets win
over German Tommy Haas (7-5, 6-4).
The 29-year-old
Gonzalez owns a 3-0 record against del Potro. But the Chilean says the
20-year-old Argentine is playing good tennis and beating him will be a
challenge.
"Yeah, I haven't played for maybe two years against
Del Potro," he said. "He's a different player now. He is one of the
new generation and he is having really good results in the past year.
We are really good friends. I mean it is going to be an interesting
match, but it is going to be fun."
This tournament is one of the
key warm-ups for the last major of the year, the U.S. Open, which
starts August 31 in New York. This week's winner earns $300,000.
