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Soderling leaves Roddick feeling the blues in Memphis

Swede Robin Soderling beat top-seeded Andy Roddick 7-6 (6), 6-3 in the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships quarter-finals on Friday, ending the American's bid to win in consecutive weeks.

Roddick won at San Jose last week and went into the quarter-final 10-1 this season, ranked sixth in the world. Soderling had been only 7-19 against top 10 players, a record that included a victory over No. 7 Richard Gasquet this month.

But the eighth-seeded Swede served up 16 aces and won all but nine points on his serve and 14 of 18 on his second serve. Soderling, the runner-up in Rotterdam last week, did not face one break point and hasn't been broken in three matches.

Roddick said Soderling outplayed him in what he thought would be his toughest match this week.

Soderling will play fourth-seeded Radek Stepanek, who beat Chris Guccione of Australia 7-6 (4), 6-1. Stepanek was runner-up in San Jose last week.

Swedish veteran Jonas Bjorkman saved a match point in beating American teenager Donald Young 1-6, 6-2, 7-6 (6) and will play Steve Darcis of Belgium, a 6-1, 6-0 winner over Benjamin Becker of Germany.

On the women's side, fourth-seeded Lindsay Davenport beat qualifier Marina Erakovic of New Zealand 6-0, 6-3 in 57 minutes. Davenport was due to meet fifth-seeded Olga Govortsova of Belarus yesterday in the final of the Cellular South Cup. Govortsova downed last year's runner-up Shahar Peer of Israel 6-3, 3-6, 6-4.

Soderling won the tiebreak by serving up an ace, then watched Roddick hit a poor return.

The Swede broke the American in the seventh game of the second set. With Soderling holding the advantage, Roddick double-faulted to fall behind 4-3. Soderling broke Roddick again to win the match, converting on his second match point.
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