Andy Roddick Slams Racket, Has 76-Minute Temper Tantrum In SAP Open Loss To Denis Istomin

There was, to say the least, some frustration for the second-seeded Andy Roddick on Friday at the SAP Open in SAn Jose. Roddick was beaten soundly by Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin 6-2, 6-4 to be eliminated in the quarterfinals, after having his potential path to victory getting considerably easier with the withdrawal of the one seed, Gael Monfils. Roddick was, in so many words, not a very happy camper.

He slammed his racket on the court, argued with the chair umpire, anybody he made eye contact with and perhaps some other voices inside of his own head. He hit a ball randomly into the air and broke one of his rackets. It was quite the 76-minute temper tantrum.

After he sent the ball into the curtains past the opposite baseline grandstand, chair umpire Steve Ulrich gave Roddick a misconduct warning, hardly important given the fact that Roddick was already well on his way to a loss. Roddick went on to argue with the umpire, asking him if the misconduct was given for the racket slamming, and the umpire told him it was for hitting the ball. Roddick told him "I challenge you on that."

His frustration is understandable, though, given his injuries of late. Roddick has been hurt a good deal over the last couple years, and recently he's been hit exceptionally hard. He had to withdraw from the Australian Open with a hamstring injury, and suffered a recent ankle sprain, on top of that. He was clearly struggling to play with the injury.

Roddick plans to play at his next destination in Memphis next week, despite his injuries.

That victory pushed Istomin into a matchup with Julien Benneteau in the semifinals, along with Milos Raonic vs. Ryan Harrison. Those matches are scheduled for Saturday, with the finals to come on Sunday. Raonic is the defending tournament champion and is the clear favorite of the four remaining.