Andy Roddick's bid to defend his Memphis Championships title came to a grinding halt as he fell to Sam Querrey in the quarter-finals.
Top seed Roddick crashes out in Memphis
Andy Roddick's bid to defend his Memphis Championships title came to a grinding halt as he was ousted 7-5 3-6 6-1 by Sam Querrey in the quarter-finals.
American world number 31 Querrey broke compatriot Roddick's serve twice in the deciding set to see off the top seed and book his place in the semi-finals.
Eighth seed Querrey will now face Latvian youngster Ernest Gulbis in the final four after he overcame fifth seed Tomas Berdych 3-6 6-3 7-6 (7-3).
Querrey battled to deuce in the second game of the third set before Roddick double faulted to allow his countryman a 2-0 lead.
Sloppy
"Today I played one sloppy game in the third set and that was it," said Roddick.
"Sometimes at this level there's not much in between it."
Querrey, who fired 16 aces over the course of the match, says he knew it was crucial to capitalise on Roddick's errors.
"You're not going to get that too many times from Andy, but I'll take it," said Querrey.
"When that rare opportunity comes you've just got to take advantage of it. I thought I did a good job there, and just kept the momentum going and played an unbelievable third set."
Querrey broke Roddick again in the final set to extend his lead, losing just one more game as he eased to victory.
The first set saw little between the American duo as they battled to the 11th game before Querrey broke Roddick to take a 6-5 lead then fired his 10th ace to wrap up the opener.
Advantage
Roddick took advantage of an early break in the second set to level the scores but Querrey's third set display clinched the win and gained revenge for his semi-final defeat to the world number seven in San Jose last week.
"It was disappointing," added Roddick.
"I felt like it was the opposite of Sam's and my match of last week. I felt like I had the better end of the first two sets and (yet) we were even."
The other last four clash will be between American sixth seed John Isner, who defeated Croatian Ivo Karlovic 6-1 7-6 (9-7), and Germany's Philipp Petzschner, who triumphed over Lukas Lacko of Slovakia 6-1 1-6 6-1.
