Federer beats Roddick in Madrid quarterfinal

Roger Federer defeated Andy Roddick 7-5, 6-7 (5), 6-1 on Friday in the quarterfinal of the Madrid Open, continuing his dominance over his American opponent.

Roddick last beat Federer, a 13-time Grand Slam champion, in Miami last year to end a run of 11 straight losses against the Swiss player. He has since gone down three times in 2009 to the world number two.

Roddick, who received a walkover into the quarterfinals after Nikolay Davydenko withdrew with a leg injury, broke in the second game to take a 2-0 lead before Federer broke back and held for 2-2.

Federer, who won two years ago when the tournament was played on indoor hard court, broke again in the 11th game before serving out the set.

Roddick, who is still searching for his first win on clay over a top-10 player, saved three break points in the ninth game of the second set to hold on for a tiebreaker, where the American rallied from 3-0 down to even the match.

But Federer stopped the American’s momentum with an early break in the decider and used his strong serving to hold on for the win. Federer won 49 of 56 first-serve points, and also hit 15 aces.

Federer has beaten Roddick 18 of the past 20 times.

He will now have to await the outcome of the match between Briton Andy Murray and Argentine fifth seed Juan Del Porto to find out his next opponent.

swissinfo.ch with agencies