Roddick dwells on positives after tournament exit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - After arriving at the U.S. Open ring-rusty because of a shoulder injury, crowd favorite Andy Roddick exited the tournament in a positive mood despite losing at the quarter-final stage on Thursday.

The big-serving American fought back from a two-set deficit before going down 6-2 6-3 3-6 7-6 to third-seeded Serb Novak Djokovic in a gripping evening match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.

"I feel better now than I did at the beginning of the summer," 2003 U.S. Open champion Roddick told reporters after losing the fourth-set tiebreak 7-5.

"Like Wimbledon and then through those tournaments and then Toronto where I played pretty bad and Cincy (Cincinnati) where I had to pull out. I never got started. This tournament was better than that.

"I said the other day you can go in two directions and I feel like I'm going in the better direction now than I was."

Roddick held high hopes of a storming season after beating Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Djokovic in the first few months this year.

However his campaign was severely jolted by the shoulder injury that led to his skipping the French Open and contributed to a disappointing second-round exit at Wimbledon.

A stiff neck kept him out of the Masters Series event in Cincinnati two months ago, cutting into his preparation for the final grand slam event of the year.

PLAYING BAD

"I was playing really, really bad when I got here," the 26-year-old said. "Not confident after coming back from the injuries. I just didn't feel clean with anything.

"But I played some good tennis here. It was just the front part of the match today that got me. It's disappointing. It's really disappointing.

"I just wasn't seeing the ball. I felt like everything was a little bit rushed, and it was unfortunate. By the time I got my legs under me he was on a little bit of a roll."

Eighth seed Roddick had no regrets over his bold strategy against Djokovic.

After winning the third set to get back into the match, the American was up a break and two points away from forcing a fifth set when he served two double faults.

That gave the Serb an unexpected breakpoint which he converted before going on to win the match in the tiebreak.

"I doubled twice but I honestly don't feel like they were super tight doubles," said Roddick, who fired a total of 15 aces past Djokovic along with seven double faults.

"I've been going for bigger second serves the whole way because he was jumping on my second serve early. I just missed them and he had a really good shot on break point.

"I've been playing pretty high-risk, high-reward tennis and I probably wasn't about to stop," the American added. "Given the choice again, I'd probably go for them again. That's what got me back in the match."

(Editing by Larry Fine)