Angry A-Rod exits to Kohlschreiber

MELBOURNE, Australia -- American Andy Roddick crashed out of the Australian Open as he lost a late-night epic to Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber in a contest that finished in the early hours of Saturday morning local time.

The 29th seed Kohlschreiber played the match of his life to beat sixth-ranked Roddick 6-4 3-6 7-6 6-7 8-6 and will play Finland's Jarkko Nieminen in the fourth round.

Roddick, who often vented his frustrations at his own play and was involved in a series of controversial confrontations with the chair umpire, looked to have turned it around when he leveled at two sets all by winning a fourth set tiebreak.

But Kohlshreiber, who maintained admirable composure throughout, refused to be ruffled and played the more incisive tennis in the decider.

He forged four match points in a remarkable tenth game, all saved by massive Roddick service winners, but would not be denied and took his fifth chance at 6-7 when the American could not return a deep forehand.

"I just went for full power on every shot at the end and it worked out perfectly. I enjoyed every second of it and both of us was doing our best to come out on top.

"In the last game I just played four amazing shots ... for Roddick it's his serve, for me it's my backhand," said the German after a match lasting nearly four hours.

Earlier, world number two Rafael Nadal shrugged off a slow start to beat Gilles Simon 7-5 6-2 6-3 to reach the last 16 of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Friday.

Nadal dropped his first service game to hand Simon a 2-0 lead, an advantage the Frenchman retained until the latter stages of the set when the three-time French Open champion turned up the heat.

The Spaniard saved three set points before breaking back to take the score to 4-5 and, after holding his own serve, broke his opponent again to take the upper hand for the first time.

However, the second seed was forced to battle to hold on to his own serve but eventually did so to close out the set 7-5 before racing into a 4-0 lead in the next as Simon wilted. Nadal eventually took it 6-2 and, although Simon offered more resistance in the third set it was only a token gesture.

Asked about his thoughts when he trailed early in the contest, Nadal said: "I was not doing the things I would like to do. I didn't play aggressively and I didn't have the control of the point.

"I knew I had to change. I had to try to play my forehand and control the points with my forehand, move Gilles around. When I did that the match changed."

Nadal will now face the winner of the clash between Austria's Stefan Koubek and Paul-Henri Mathieu of France in the fourth round.

Elsewhere, fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko of Russia continued his fine progress with victory over France's Marc Gicquel 6-3 6-2 6-3 and next faces 14th-ranked compatriot Mikhail Youzhny, a 6-2 6-4 6-2 winner over Croatia's Ivo Karlovic.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat ninth seed Andy Murray in the first round, also marched on with a straight sets win over Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain. E-mail to a friend