Roddick bundled out in Cincinnati
Andy Roddick has twice been a champion at Cincinnati
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Thursday, 16, Aug 2007 10:45
Defending champion Andy Roddick was the latest big name to crash out of the Cincinnati Masters as he lost in straight sets to Spain's David Ferrer.
Roddick failed to take three set points in the first set and lost 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 to follow Novak Djokovic and Rafael Nadal out of the tournament.
The American star was supported avidly by his home fans and looked on course to take the first set when he had set points on the Ferrer serve, but the Spanish baseliner fought hard to keep his serve and won the set 7-4 on the tiebreak.
Ferrer looked comfortable in the second set and broke the Roddick serve once to ease his way to a 6-4 victory.
Although he won the Washington Open a fortnight ago, Roddick has been struggling to beat the best players in the world on a regular basis and faces a real battle to make an impact at the US Open which gets underway in ten days.
Elsewhere in the draw, former world number one Lleyton Hewitt set up a mouth-watering quarterfinal clash with Carlos Moya after he beat Jurgen Meltzer 6-3 6-3.
"I played pretty good. After going down an early break I played pretty solid," said Hewitt.
"I served well. I put pressure on his serve and made him go for a few bail-out shots when he didn't want to rally, which was good with the circumstances in the weather conditions out there today."