UPDATE 1-Tennis-Open-Roddick into quarters as Berdych retires

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By Simon Cambers

NEW YORK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Former champion Andy Roddick was awarded a place in the quarter-finals of the U.S. Open on Monday when his opponent, Tomas Berdych, retired with breathing problems.

The American fifth seed was leading 7-6 2-0 when Czech Berdych quit, setting up Roddick for a likely clash with three-times defending champion Roger Federer.

"It's unfortunate for Tomas but there's not much I can do about it," Roddick told reporters. "I heard him say something to the umpire early on in the first and of course I'm trying to eavesdrop on his conversation with the trainers."

Roddick said he was not overly concerned that he has yet to be pushed hard at this year's event.

"I don't know if it does too much good to worry about it," he said.

"I know this is a lot better than being dead tired. If those are the two options, I'll take this one."

Ninth seed Berdych consulted the trainer on several occasions in the first set but still managed to fight back from a break down and force a set point.

But Roddick won the tiebreak 8-6 and once he broke in the second game of the second, Berdych decided he could not go on.

"I could not breathe normally. It was hard to breathe. I didn't feel well. Then the body was so slow. It wasn't any straight one problem or one pain or something. So it was just like generally I didn't feel well.

"I don't know exactly what was wrong. I'm not feeling really well. I have just been with the doctor. I'm going to go back there again just to take blood test and get some results.

"Before, I was playing pretty good, so my chances were pretty high for today's match."

Keywords: TENNIS OPEN/RODDICK