Tennis: End Of The Line For Murray

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Andy Murray's run at the Cincinnati Masters ended in a 6-3 6-4 defeat at the quarter-final stage by American former world number one Andy Roddick.

The British number one - who became just the second man this year to beat world number one Roger Federer in the second round - saved four match points but ultimately paid the price for his heroics earlier in the week.

Murray was exhausted by the emotion of beating Federer and then a gruelling third round win over Robbie Ginepri and was simply outlsted by the American.

The victory gave the ninth-seeded Roddick his first career win over the 19-year-old Murray after two defeats.

"I wasn't going into the match expecting to win tonight," Murray admitted after his 14th match in 17 days. "I considered pulling out when I woke up this morning and about a half an hour before I went on, but I felt like I had one hour where I could compete with him.

"I had a few chances at the start of the first set. If I was able to serve a little bit better and put a bit more
pressure on him by winning my service games more comfortably, then it could have been a tighter match.

"But I was maybe just a little bit too tired today."

Murray was broken in the eighth game and the American served out for the first set.

Roddick then raced into a 5-2 lead in the second set only for Murray to battle back, breaking the Roddick serve and saving two match points on his own serve to reduce the deficit to 5-4.

Murray then saved two more match points on the Roddick serve but the American, who hit 16 aces on the night, finally clinched victory on his fifth match point.

The American will play Chilean 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez in Saturday's semi-finals.

[Credit: SkySports]