Roddick beats Nadal to reach Dubai semis

DUBAI (Reuters) - Andy Roddick did not appear to be missing the services of a coach during his 7-6 6-2 quarter-final victory over Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal in the Dubai Championships on Thursday.

The sixth-seeded American, who said he had parted ways with his coach Jimmy Connors, will next face third seed Novak Djokovic after the Serbian swept aside Russia's Igor Andreev 6-2 6-1.

The other semi-final will be between fifth seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko, who defeated Britain's Andy Murray 7-5 6-4, and unseeded Feliciano Lopez.

Lopez upset fellow Spaniard and fourth seed David Ferrer 6-4 6-3.

Roddick placed Nadal under pressure from the start, holding serve with the first of his 17 aces and then forced Nadal to save four break points to level at 1-1.

With both players refusing to cave in and saving numerous break points, the set headed into a tiebreak.

Nadal swiftly took a 3-0 lead but Roddick fired two successive aces to keep pace and eventually claimed it 7-5.

"I felt I was getting the best of him throughout the set, and then all of a sudden I'm down 3-0 in the tiebreaker pretty quick and that was a little discouraging," said Roddick.

Roddick surprisingly faced little resistance in the second. Nadal began to make far more errors and after Roddick broke twice to lead 4-1.

A 241 kph ace set up match point and he closed it with yet another ace.

'GREAT ATMOSPHERE'

"It's a fast court, the crowd was really into it and the atmosphere was great. I wasn't going to get better conditions for myself against Rafa. I knew that and tried to take advantage," said the former world number one.

Nadal admitted that Roddick's powerful serve had put his own game under pressure.

"You feel a lot of pressure when you are serving because if you lose any serve, the way he was serving tonight it's tough," said Nadal.

"But in a way I am not disappointed with my game tonight. I didn't play badly."

Murray, who knocked out top seed Roger Federer in the first round, began brightly against Davydenko and had chances to win the first five games, but the Russian fought off a break point in the second game and another at 2-1.

The Russian earned a crucial break at 5-5 when Murray netted a double-handed backhand.

In the second set Murray had an opportunity to turn the match around, breaking to love as he built a 3-0 lead. But his advantage was short-lived as Davydenko broke back in the fifth game and once more to lead 4-3.

Djokovic needed just 56 minutes to defeat Andreev, winning the last five games of the first set and the final four games in the second.

(Editing by Pritha Sarkar)