Top seed Andy Roddick served his way into the semi-finals of the Brisbane International with a 6-3 7-6 victory over Richard Gasquet.
Gasquet has no answer to American's great delivery
Top seed Andy Roddick served his way into the semi-finals of the Brisbane International with a 6-3 7-6 victory over Richard Gasquet.
The American, who later confirmed he would not be representing his country in this year's Davis Cup, will take on Czech Tomas Berdych for a place in the final.
Gasquet got the better of Roddick last time they met at Wimbledon in 2007 but the Frenchman won just three points on the Roddick serve in the first set and five in the second, despite taking it to a tie-break.
Gasquet was rarely troubled on serve but Roddick clinched a crucial break in the sixth game that ultimately won him the set.
"He served incredibly - I didn't have a break point against him," Gasquet said. "In the first set I served really bad, that's why I lost 6-3. My groundstrokes weren't really good.
"He played well, returned well and put pressure on my serve. In the second set I tried to play better, to serve better...but he played better than me this match, for sure."
Surface
Roddick admitted his troublesome knee was feeling good in his first week of competition since October, but was not prepared to risk further injury by playing Davis Cup.
"I want to switch surfaces as little as possible this year with my knee, because of the way last year finished," he said.
"I'm not going to be one of the guys who plays when it's convenient, when it's close to home and on a good surface for him.
"In Davis Cup my view has always been you decide at the beginning of the year whether to go to everything or not and at this point we just decided that it was smarter as far as long term health is concerned, to at least be consistent with surfaces as much as possible."
Czech Republic's Berdych earlier booked his place in the semi-finals by defeating Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci in three sets
The fourth seed did not have it all his own way in his first meeting with Bellucci, dropping the second set before bouncing back to take the match 7-6 (7-4) 2-6 7-6 (7-5).
