Roddick too strong for Becker

Andy Roddick eased through to the last eight of the US Open with a 6-3 6-4 6-3 win over German qualifier Benjamin Becker – the man who had ended Andre Agassi’s dreams of one final grand slam title.

The story of the first week at Flushing Meadows had been all about Agassi, who won two dramatic matches before bringing the curtain down on his 21-year career after an emotional loss to Becker on Sunday.

But a day later, most of the emotions from Agassi’s farewell were gone as ninth seed Roddick swiftly finished off the German in just 95 minutes, displaying a dominant serve which included 19 aces.

In the first set, the 24-year-old Roddick broke Becker in the eighth game and then finished off the set with a dominant service game in which he smacked an ace that reached 145 miles per hour.

The final two sets were more of the same for Roddick, who was the champion in 2003 in what is his only grand slam title to date.

Roddick’s hard serves resulted in three successive unforced errors by Becker to close out the second set, and in the third, he broke serve in the seventh game and easily won the final two games.

Roddick’s next opponent could be 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt of Australia.

The 15th seed concludes the night session against number 25 Richard Gasquet of France.

Second seed Rafael Nadal also marched through to the quarter-finals despite having to play a second successive day at the US Open.

The Spaniard advanced to the last eight of the year’s final major with a 6-1 7-6 (7/3) 6-4 victory over Czech Jiri Novak at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Because rain had wiped out play on Saturday, Nadal had to come through his third-round match against Wesley Moodie on Sunday – an encounter he won in straight sets to reach the last 16 at Flushing Meadows for the first time.

But the 20-year-old Nadal, the two-time defending French Open champion who also advanced to his first Wimbledon final in July, did not appear tired, breaking Novak four times and winning most of the longer rallies.

Nadal, who is trying to become the sixth man in the open era to win both the French and US Open in the same year, has yet to face a seeded opponent and will not do so in the last eight either after Russian Mikhail Youzhny crushed sixth-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-2 6-0 6-1.

Tommy Haas avenged his five-set defeat by Robby Ginepri at the same stage last year by overcoming the American in another epic, 7-6 (7/1) 6-4 3-6 3-6 7-6 (7/1).