Ranting Roddick comes a cropper

Published on Friday 18 January 2008 20:57

AMERICAN Andy Roddick lost his cool and his chance of a first Australian Open title when he was beaten by German 29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in a five-set third-round thriller.

In a match that finished just after 2am local time last night, the sixth seed went down 6-4, 3-6, 7-6, 6-7, 8-6 to an inspired Kohlschreiber, who handed Roddick his earliest exit from the event since his debut in 2002.

Roddick banged down a career-best 42 aces but still came out second best with Kohlschreiber outplaying him in every other department.

When the American saved four match points at 4-5 in the final set – three of them with huge aces – it looked as if he would dig his way out of trouble. But the German would not be denied and a wide forehand from Roddick handed him a place in the last 16.

"The whole match, the whole game for me was perfect I think today," Kohlschreiber told reporters.

Asked about his match points, he added: "I wasn't thinking to finish the match. I had no chance with the match points. He served three aces in a row. At the end, the last game was just like amazing shots."

Having eased through the first two rounds, Roddick went into the match as a strong favourite but he was found wanting immediately as Kohlschreiber took the attack to him, mixing power with deft drop shots.

After the first two sets were split, both men had set points in the third but Kohlschreiber took the tiebreak 9-7 to move ahead. That, though, was the signal for Roddick to lose his temper with umpire Emmanuel Joseph.

"You're an idiot," Roddick yelled. "Stay in school, kids, or you'll end up being an umpire."

The spats seemed to fire up Roddick, however, and he pinched the fourth set on another tiebreak, 7-3. Kohlschreiber continued to attack, though, his backhand causing Roddick problems throughout and he forced four match points in the 10th game of the decider.

Roddick showed his mettle by saving them all and games went with serve until 7-6 when the German played almost flawlessly to break and clinch victory. The 24-year-old will now play Finn Jarkko Nieminen for a place in the quarter-finals.

World No 2 Rafael Nadal, meanwhile, had to inject some aggression into his game to overcome the challenge of Frenchman Gilles Simon. A quarter-finalist at Melbourne Park 12 months ago, the Spanish second seed trailed 2-5 in the opening set but proceeded to win the next nine games as he set himself on the way to a 7-5, 6-2, 6-3 triumph.

Earlier in the day, exciting French youngster Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat Andy Murray in the first round, and Russian seeds Nikolay Davydenko and Mikhail Youzhny had also booked their places in the fourth round.

Tsonga demolished sick Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Fourth seed Davydenko had little trouble brushing aside Tsonga's countryman Marc Gicquel 6-3, 6-2, 6-3, setting up a fourth-round meeting with No 14 seed Youzhny, who defeated Croatian No 20 seed Ivo Karlovic 6-2, 6-4, 6-2.