Roddick advances in SAP Open

SAN JOSE -- Top-seeded Andy Roddick beat No. 5 Tomas Berdych of the Czech Republic 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5) on Friday night to reach the SAP Open semifinals. Roddick has won the San Jose stop three times and reached the semis in eight of his nine appearances in the tournament. "He hits the ball so hard and so flat that it kind of keeps you off balance," Roddick said. "You feel like you're scrapping and clawing trying to hang on." There were moments the American star looked ready to throw his racket, but he managed to take control. "I have a lot of experience in being hacked off and it played to my favor in dealing with the frustration," Roddick said. "He forced me to play well. He made one mistake in each of the tiebreaks and that was pretty much the difference." Roddick and Berdych combined for 34 aces. Roddick will face No. 7 Sam Querrey, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Michael Russell. In the other semifinal, second-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain will play Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin. Verdasco overcame a sore right hamstring to beat qualifier Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 7-6 (5), and Istomin beat sixth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. "I've been getting treatment for it and that's all I can do," Verdasco said. "Since the first moment I played here it's feeling pretty good and even moreso now." The 19-year-old Berankis became the first Lithuanian-born player to reach an ATP World Tour quarterfinal. "He's going to be a good player," Verdasco said about the former top-ranked junior player. "He has a good serve and he's young."