Roddick, Hewitt Into Semis at Australian Open

Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt joined Roger Federer and Marat Safin in rounding out the Top 4 players on the ATP Rankings into the semifinalists at the Australian Open.

On Wednesday Roddick advanced to his second career Aussie Open semis when, leading No. 26-seed Nikolay Davydenko 6-3, 7-5, 4-1, the Russian retired with breathing problems.

"The only other time I got this far at the Australian Open I thought I was going to fall over going into my semifinal match," said Roddick, who reached the semis in 2003 after a five-set marathon win over Younes El Aynaoui. "It's been pretty smooth sailing so far. I mean, as much so as I've ever had being in this position in a grand slam. That could end up being a good thing. I don't have many miles on me so far this tournament."

The Russian was at a loss to explain the breathing problems, most likely brought on by the intense summer heat.

"I don't know," Davydenko said. "I think at about three all in the first set, I felt something. Because we played short points this was ok but then a few points were long and I felt something. I could not breathe. If I take break for one, two minutes, then first two, three points was okay. But then something is coming, coming so bad and then feeling everything really not so good. The doctor said it was the heat...I will now concentrate on my body, how I am feeling, what I do, and what I need to do later."

Roddick will now face Aussie hero Lleyton Hewitt, who in a match that ended near midnight in Melbourne outlasted David Nalbandian 10-8 in the fifth set, recovering after blowing a two-set lead to gain his first Australian Open semifinal.

Roddick said he was ready to face the Aussie crowd and Hewitt..

"The way I see that now is that I've been through probably the worst crowd I'll ever be through with what we did in Spain," Roddick said. "I'm sure it will be rowdy. I don't expect anybody to be cheering for me so it's a little bit easier when you know going in what the circumstances might be."

Winners in men's doubles quarterfinal action were (5) Wayne Black/Kevin Ullyett (d. (3) Bhupathi/Woodbridge), and (4) Jonas Bjorkman/Max "The Beast" Mirnyi (d. two-time defending champs (6) Llodra/Fabrice "The Original Magician" Santoro).

On tap for Thursday is the first men's semifinal in (1) Federer vs. (4) Safin in a rematch of last year's final (Fed leads the career meetings 6-1, but each of the last three have included at least one tiebreak), and the doubles semis in the unseeded Austrian/German combo of Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer/Waske vs. Zimbabwe's (5) Black/Ullyett, and the Swede/Belarus pairing of (4) Bjorkman/The Beast vs. Americans (2) the Bryan brothers.