Roddick blows it in Melbourne

Updated 17.46 Fri Jan 18 2008

Keywords: andy roddick, philipp kohlschreiber, gilles simon, australian open, rafael nadal, tennis, sport

Andy Roddick lost his cool and with it the chance of a first title when he was beaten by German 29th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber in a third-round thriller at Australian Open.

In a five-set thriller that finished after 2am, the sixth seeded American went down 6-4 3-6 7-6 6-7 8-6 to an inspired Kohlschreiber, who handed Roddick his earliest exit from the event since his debut in 2002.

Earlier Rafael Nadal had made a slow start before rousing himself to beat Gilles Simon 7-5 6-2 6-3

Roddick banged down a career-best 42 aces but still came out second best with Kohlscreiber, who entered the tournament with a career-high ranking of 27, outplaying him in every other department.

When the American saved four match points at 4-5 in the final set - three of them with huge aces - it looked as if he would dig his way out of trouble.

But Kohlschreiber would not be denied and a forehand wide gave him victory and a place in the fourth round, equalling his previous best grand-slam performance.

Earlier Rafael Nadal had made a slow start before rousing himself to beat Gilles Simon 7-5 6-2 6-3.

The Spaniard was broken in his first service game and saved three set points at 4-5 before breaking Simon in successive service games.

Simon went on to lose his first two service games in the second set too, falling 4-0 behind as Nadal won comfortably.

Simon rallied again in the third set but could not prevent the second seed from reaching the fourth round.

Nadal will now play Paul-Henri Mathieu.