Roddick Passes on Greul at ATP Miami

Upset-minded German qualifier Simon Greul nearly added another scalp to his take over the last week at the Masters Series-Miami, on Tuesday falling in three sets to No. 4 seed Andy Roddick 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 as the embattled American moved into the quarterfinals.

Roddick is attempting to halt his slow slide down the ATP Rankings after a rough start in 2006, while Greul had earlier in the event taken out Paradorn Srichaphan, No. 17 seed Dominik Hrbaty, and Tim Henman after being beaten 6-0 by the Brit in the first set.

"He plays some points where he just crushes every ball and then does the big grunt thing," said Roddick on struggling to find a rhythm against the German. "Then some points he kind of stays back and doesn't really hit the ball. You're kind of like, you don't know what part of him is going to come out in a point really. I let him into the second set a little bit, then he started playing great towards the end of it. It's definitely a little bit of an awkward match-up."

In other upsets Tuesday, Argentine Agustin Calleri followed up his dismissal of Carlos Moya with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 grinding win over No. 16 seed Nicolas Kiefer, and No. 22 Mario Ancic stopped No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko in straight sets.

Seeded victors cruising into the quarterfinals with straight-set wins were (1) Roger Federer (d. Tursunov), (3) David Nalbandian (d. (15) Stepanek), (6) Ivan Ljubicic (d. C.Rochus), (9) James Blake (d. (32) Chela 6-0 in the third), and (11) Dave Ferrer (d. (29) O.Rochus in three).

"It was tough, tough match, like expected in the conditions," Federer said. "I knew I was gonna play in a time when the sun was gonna go down. Wind wasn't too bad. I thought I did really well today."

Blake will next get to test his new-found Top 10 status against the world No. 1 Federer.

On court Wednesday in quarterfinal action are (6) Ljubicic vs. Calleri, and (3) Nalbandian vs. (22) Ancic.