Defending champion Andy Roddick was pushed for the second straight day before prevailing over Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun 7-6, 6-4 on Thursday during the second round of the Memphis Championships.
Fifth-seeded Tomas Berdych also made to the last eight, with the Czech fighting back to beat American Michael Russell 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Sam Querrey, the eighth-seeded American, also made it through with a 6-4, 6-0 thrashing of Argentina’s Leonardo Mayer.
After a tough three-set victory over fellow American James Blake in the opening round, Roddick relied on 10 aces and a key break of serve to beat Lu, who at No. 114, was one of the lowest-ranked players in the 32-man field.
After failing to break the Taiwanese on seven earlier opportunities, Roddick converted on the eighth by double-fault. The mistake by Lu gave Roddick a 5-4 lead in the second set and he served out the match.
“It was good. But if I want to go further in this tournament I’ve got to do better on break points,” Roddick said. “That was really ordinary. The one I ended up getting was because he doubled.”
“I’m doing a good job of getting [break points]. I feel like I’m in every [opponent’s] service game, but I can’t miss second-serve returns at 15-30 or 30-all. I’m very close to playing really well,” he said.
Other winners in the men’s draw on Thursday were Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic — a 6-4, 6-4 winner over Belgium’s Xavier Malisse — and Slovakia’s Lukas Lacko, who progressed when Jeremy Chardy of France retired when trailing 7-6 (4), 2-1.
In the women’s portion of the event — the Cellular South Cup — top-seeded Maria Sharapova continued her dominating march with a 6-2, 7-5 victory against Elena Baltacha of Great Britain to reach the semi-finals.
Sharapova has not dropped a set and lost only 11 games in three matches in her first tournament since losing in the first round of the Australian Open last month.
Second-seeded Melanie Oudin, was upset by qualifier and 2006 Memphis champion Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden.
Arvidsson, who barely made it to Memphis in time to compete in qualifying, won 6-1, 6-3.
Czech Petra Kvitova also reached the semi-finals by recovering from a slow start to overpower third-seeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 1-6, 6-3, 7-6 (0).
Britain’s Anne Keothavong also moved into the last four with a 6-4, 6-3 defeat of Croatia’s Karolina Sprem.
■DUBAI CHAMPIONSHIPS
AP, DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
A year after she was stopped from playing in the Dubai Championships, Israel’s Shahar Peer is proving unstoppable after reaching the semi-finals on Thursday.
Unseeded Peer beat her third seed in four matches when No. 8 Li Na of China retired with back spasms. Peer was leading 7-5, 3-0.
Peer, who has also beaten No. 1 seed Caroline Wozniacki and No. 13 seed Yanina Wickmayer, will meet defending champion Venus Williams.
Last year, Peer’s visa was denied by the United Arab Emirates for security reasons, so the WTA Tour punished the tournament organizers with a heavy fine.
Williams, the highest remaining seed at No. 3, beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-3, 6-4, ending a run of two straight defeats to the Russian teenager last year.
Williams started 3-1 behind then changed tactics and became overtly aggressive. She won five straight games to end the first set, but took a little longer to end the match.
Pavlyuchenkova saved three match points on serve at 3-5, and three more on Williams’ serve in the next game.
The other semi-final will feature Victoria Azarenka against Agnieska Radwanska.
Azarenka had little trouble rubbing out Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-3 for the second time in two months. Azarenka beat Zvonareva for the first time en route to the Australian Open quarter-finals and was even more impressive this time. Zvonareva was broken six times and fourth-seeded Azarenka saved seven of nine break points.
Radwanska pulled off a comeback against Russian qualifier Regina Kulikova, winning 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 in 2 hours, 18 minutes.
Kulikova, ranked 99, eliminated French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova a day before and showed no fear again, making Radwanska work hard to reach her first semi-final since October.
■OPEN 13
AP, MARSEILLE, FRANCE
Top-seeded Robin Soderling was extended by Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine just to get out of the second round of the Open 13, winning 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4 on Thursday.
Soderling hit 16 aces to Stakhovsky’s 20 and converted his only two break chances while Stakhovsky missed all four of his, all in the second set.
Illya Marchenko of Ukraine and Frenchmen Gael Monfils and Guillaume Rufin joined the Swede in the last eight.
The third-seeded Monfils edged Andreas Seppi of Italy 7-6 (4), 3-6, 7-6 (3) while wild card Rufin beat Belgian qualifier Yannick Mertens 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 to reach his first quarter-finals on the ATP Tour. Lucky loser Marchenko outlasted Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-1, 3-6, 6-2.
Soderling broke Stakhovsky at 1-1 in the final set and finally won in just under two hours when the Ukrainian sent his backhand return into the net.
The French Open finalist struggled with his serve initially, double-faulting at 5-5 in the tiebreaker to give Stakhovsky a set point that he converted with an ace.
Soderling broke for 2-0 in the second with a backhand return winner, and two straight service winners helped level the match at one set apiece.
The Rotterdam champion will next face last year’s finalist Michael Llodra of France while Rufin will play Mischa Zverev of Germany.
The 19-year-old Rufin is one of the most improved players on the circuit, jumping from 1,046th in the world rankings a year ago to 154th this week.
Monfils won fewer points than Seppi and never managed to break the Italian, but he made the difference in the two tiebreakers.
Seppi jumped to a 3-0 lead and held serve to take the second set.
Monfils will take on countryman Julien Benneteau in the quarter-finals while Marchenko will meet defending champion and second-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
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