Top seed Roddick tumbles out of Open

Russian Marat Safin sent top seed Andy Roddick tumbling out of the Australian Open today, celebrating his 24th birthday with …

Russian Marat Safin sent top seed Andy Roddick tumbling out of the Australian Open today, celebrating his 24th birthday with a 2-6 6-3 7-5 6-7 6-4 victory.

Roddick burst out of the blocks and raced through the first set in 26 minutes as a nervous-looking Safin committed a string of unforced errors.

But former world number one Safin hit back to take the second and third sets.

Safin then suffered a meltdown in the fourth-set tiebreak, allowing the American to run away with it 7-0.

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However, Safin broke his opponent in the ninth game of the final set and, after saving two break points, wrapped up the biggest shock of the men's tournament with a forehand volley after three hours 23 minutes.

Safin will play defending champion Andre Agassi in the semi-finals.