• US Open, Day Ten

Emotional Roddick ready for next step

ESPN will be providing extensive coverage of the US Open, with live scores, commentary and analysis and you can follow it all with our live scorecentre

Andy Roddick's career came to an end with defeat to Juan Martin Del Potro and he gave an emotional interview on court. He said: "For the first time in my career I am not sure what to say. Since I was a kid I have been coming here and felt lucky to be watching and see the champions that have come and gone. I have loved every minute of it. It has been a road, lot of ups and downs and great moments. I have appreciated all your support along the way. I just want to say thanks to my family, my mum and dad, my support team who have been with me forever. The one thing I am not scared about is the people I come home to who I love so much."

Speaking at his pres conference, he said: "Playing the last five games was pretty hard. Once I got down a break I could barely look at my box. I don't know what the emotions are. I'm a little overwhelmed right now. I normally feel like I can grasp things pretty quickly and clearly; I certainly don't feel that way right now.

"I think I played really well up until the second set breaker; I played two pretty bad points there. You know, once he kind of gets his feet under him he likes to swing free. I think he freed up a little bit and I gave him a couple of looks. The third set was a bit of a wash. The fourth set, 1‑All game, I had a pretty good look there. I think that was the point for me to try to turn it."

Juan Martin Del Potro has admitted he was nervous in trying to close out the career of Roddick. He said: "Yeah, it was really tough moment for me and for him, also. Last point of his life. The crowd was amazing for both players. I really enjoyed in that way, but it wasn't easy for me to play. I had to close the match with my serve. I was nervous, but he made some misses and was easier for me. But anyway, was an unbelievable match."

Andy Murray battled back from a set down to beat Marin Cilic and was happy with how he ended the match. He said: "I just kept fighting and he got a bit nervous at the end of the second set. It is a quicker court compared to Ashe and I struggled early on and he made it difficult for me. He did play well at the start. I was maybe a bit tentative, I was leaving balls in the middle of the court and he was dominating. But after I got the second I started to dominate. When you play a lot of matches you do struggle sometimes, there is pressure on you to perform and you are nervous. I am just glad I was able to fight back. The last two sets were good the first two were patchy. I am happy with the way I finished."

Roger Federer suffered a shock defeat at the hands of Tomas Berdych, despite staging a third-set fightback. He said: "I'm disappointed you know. I really expected myself to play better. Such an amazing summer I had, I really thought I was going to come out and play a solid match. I didn't do that. Obviously there is a bit of a letdown now.

"So many moments I thought, 'Man, it's just not happening for me.' It was just a very disappointing match. The power is not really the issue here. I don't think that was a problem for me. The problem was elsewhere."

Tomas Berdych would not have been happier after recording the famous victory, as he dominated Federer from the back of the court for large portions of the match. He will take on Andy Murray next. He said: "It couldn't be better. There's no better moment so far than this one. I'll just try to bring something from today and try to add something a little more for my next match.

"Everything was just right today. I lost the third set but, you know, I cannot count on beating Roger in straight sets and not to get in any trouble."

Novak Djokovic came through against a struggling Stanislas Wawrinka and repeated his calls for covers to be used at the major hard court tournments. He said: "The explanation back in Toronto I remember a couple weeks ago where we had really terrible weather conditions ‑ we had to stay two days to play two matches in a row in one day ‑ so the explanation there was the humidity is a concern for those hard courts. If you put the covers down and then it's too humid and, you know, it's not good for the surface itself. But then, you know, I said, Okay, so why don't you just inflate it like they do in Wimbledon? Oh, it's a good idea. Okay. So that's all I got. I really hope they will seriously do something about it. There is no reason not to. I mean, not just here but in Toronto, big hard court tournaments, Washington. Everywhere, they have the rain at this time of the year. So you have to try to change something in order to benefit from it. I mean, it's definitely frustrating not just for players but for the tournament that they are losing people coming to the courts they have to refund the tickets. There's a lot of different angles that you have to try to cover after the rain."

Janko Tipsarevic came through in straight sets against Philipp Kohlschreiber but it was a two-day affair. He said: "It was a very long day yesterday. I think I was one of the first guys to come on site to warm up and everything. It was just a two‑day match, and I'm extremely happy that I managed to go through in straight sets. I played well, but I'm extremely happy how I managed to play good on key and important moments in all three sets. I think this was the main difference. All three sets were, even though the score doesn't show it, really, really tight. But in important moments I guess because of the confidence I have and the way that I have being playing in the last couple months showed that I make the right decisions in the right moments of the match."

Serena Williams breezed into the final four as she dominated Ana Ivanovic. Williams has played some superb tennis en route to the semis, but hopes to step up her game at the business end of the tournament. She said: "I feel like I'm going to get more focused and serious and start playing Serena tennis in the next couple of rounds, if I get to play two rounds. That's my goal.

"I didn't think I came into this tournament playing my best, but I definitely played better in the last two matches."

Maria Sharapova battled past Marion Bartoli and the Russian was thankful for the rain delay that took them off when she was 4-0 down in the first set. "I think the rain delay gave me some time to think about things," Sharapova said. "I came out so flat yesterday, and she was playing so well. I just played a bad four games, but I knew the match wasn't over and had a chance to come back and turn things around."

Sara Errani got the better of her great friend and doubles partner Roberta Vinci to reach the semi-finals. She said: "It was a very difficult match. A quarter-final with your best friend, of course, is difficult. There is much tension. Also for the rain, we were going out, in, then out, in, out. So it was difficult. We know each other very well. We have played together many times. It was also strange to see her on the other side of the net. Normally also when you walk on the court, we go together, we speak. Today was a bit strange, but sometimes it happens. I think we played a good match. It was not an unbelievable match, but we played a good match, I think."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.