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Updated at 3:46 p.m., Sunday, March 16, 2008

Tennis: Roddick loses temper, falls to Haas in 3rd round

Associated Press

INDIAN WELLS, Calif. — Andy Roddick lost his temper — and his third-round match in the Pacific Life Open.

Roddick broke at least two rackets, hit a ball out of the crowded stadium and threw several small temper tantrums today in a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Tommy Haas.

The loss, only Roddick's third of the year in 18 matches, marked his earliest exit from the ATP Tour event and followed tournament titles at San Jose and Dubai and a quarterfinal effort at Memphis.

"It's a lot easier sitting here after this loss today having put together the body of work I have over the last month," Roddick said. "It's probably easier to take and probably affects your confidence a lot less."

That doesn't mean Roddick wasn't upset. The loss was his third in a row and seventh in 10 meetings with Haas, and when someone asked if there was something about the way Haas played that gave him a little trouble, Roddick snapped, "Apparently," and waited for the next question.

"Today was one of the matches where I won the majority of the important points," said Haas, who closed out the win with a forehand that clipped the top of the net and fell onto Roddick's side of the court.

"When I broke him, I really played some great points, backhand and forehand passing shots and forehand lobs, and that was really the only difference."

The win evened Haas's record for the year at 4-4 as he tries to come back from another of his numerous medical setbacks, this one the third surgery on his right shoulder in November 2007. The German veteran was No. 2 in the world in May, 2002, and No. 12 at the close of the 2007 season, but came into the 10-day tournament at No. 36 after failing to get beyond the second round in four tournaments.

Statistically the two were fairly even. Haas had 30 winners to Roddick's 26 and made 26 unforced errors to Roddick's 26. But Haas converted both his service break opportunities and Roddick failed on his two chances.

There has been talk that Haas has had enough of injuries and rehabilitation and was considering retirement, and he indicated he had entertained the thought. But, he said, "when you play a match like today and everything is going pretty well and you're playing some of the tennis that you were taught and you know you can play against a great champion and competitor like Andy Roddick, you don't think about those things."

Roddick was the biggest upset victim Sunday, when the wind that plagued the tournament the previous two days subsided greatly. But No. 12 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile was beaten by Croatia's Mario Ancic, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova improved top 16-0 in '08 with a ragged 7-5, 6-3 win over Eleni Daniilidou of Greece, the No. 26 seed.

No. 7 David Nalbandian and No. 11 Andy Murray and women's No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova all needed three sets to advance to the fourth round.

Nalbandian overcame a 2-5 deficit in the third set to beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4), Murray rallied to beat Jurgen Melzer of Austria, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, and Kuznetsova overcame No. 28 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.