Roddick Recovers; Agassi Withdraws

So what if it took until about 10 p.m. for the completion of a men’s singles match?

Strange days indeed turned into a strange night, indeed.

Friday on the men’s side at the Pacific Life Open started with the surprise exit of Andre Agassi, who pulled out before his quarterfinal match against Lleyton Hewitt of Australia because of a toe injury. Light rain delayed the start of the remaining quarterfinal between Carlos Moya and Andy Roddick at night.

It was worth the wait.

The third-seeded Roddick salvaged what had been a dismal day for U.S. Davis Cup players at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, defeating seventh-seeded Moya of Spain, 6-7 (4), 6-4, 6-1 in 1 hour 53 minutes. That followed Agassi’s injury, and a semifinal doubles loss by twins Mike and Bob Bryan in a third-set tiebreaker.

Roddick pulled off the relief effort, and in today’s semifinals, he will play Hewitt. That match follows the first semifinal between defending champion Roger Federer of Switzerland and Guillermo Canas of Argentina.

It had been looking like an 0-for-3 session for the Americans after Roddick lost the opening set and his temper after a call in the tiebreaker, in which he squandered a 4-1 lead. Roddick strongly questioned the decision of chair umpire Lars Graff.

The moment came at 4-4 in the tiebreaker. Moya’s backhand passing shot went wide, but Graff ruled that the ball glanced off Roddick’s racket frame. TV replays appeared to back up the chair umpire’s call. Moya, leading 5-4, took the set with a service winner and a forehand passing shot.

Roddick gave the official an earful after losing the set.

Graff told Roddick that the ball went off his racket, and Roddick shot back, saying, “That’s very creative,” calling him an “artist.” Roddick kept on him, adding: “If you were that creative at home, your wife would be a happy woman.” During his on-court TV interview, after the win, Roddick wasn’t quite as sure about whether the ball hit his racket and was considerably less strident in the interview room.

“I’ve gotten mad at them just because I need someone to talk to,” Roddick said of the chair umpires in general. “I know he honestly thinks I hit it and that’s his call. Maybe I’m more upset about losing six points in the tiebreaker.”

This may have topped Roddick’s previous exchange with Graff. At the Masters Series event in Paris last fall, Roddick engaged in a running debate with the chair umpire over line calls during what turned out to be a loss to Max Mirnyi. Roddick asked Graff if he played golf, and Graff responded by saying no. “Good, because if you did, you should use your mulligan on that call,” Roddick was quoted as saying in wire agency reports.

Here, two solid sets, and some stellar net play, went a long way toward boosting his mood. Roddick had 13 aces and did not double fault once, in reaching his first semifinal at Indian Wells.

“I felt good even after I lost the first set,” Roddick said.

So instead of an all-American semifinal between Roddick and Agassi, Roddick will have a rematch of his Australian Open semifinal against Hewitt, which Hewitt won in January.

Agassi was forced to withdraw from the tournament when he started suffering pain, swelling and discomfort in the big toe of his left foot in the middle of the night. He didn’t try to play the match against Hewitt but addressed the crowd and took part in an on-court interview.

“I would have been beyond useless today,” Agassi told the fans.

Results were not immediately available from an X-ray here. Agassi is expected to have additional tests, including an MRI, today at his home in Las Vegas.

“I thought it was an in-grown toenail in the middle of the night,” Agassi said. “The pressure of the sheets alone was making it hurt. If I rotated left or right, it was bothering me. I put it up on two pillows, thinking I was just getting some throbbing and some pain.”