Roddick eases past Mathieu to reach last eight

Roddick, the only American in the men's draw to reach the fourth round, polished off the unseeded Frenchman 6-2 7-5 7-6 (8-6) after rain and a thunder storms had dragged the match into a third day.

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But the Wimbledon third seed, who had looked so comfortable yesterday, was given a fright in the third set by his gifted French opponent in front of large swathes of empty seats on Centre Court.

Mathieu was serving for the third set but went to pieces at the crucial moment and Roddick survived another scare in the tie-break before closing out the match.

The victory keeps Roddick, who began the day serving for the second set, on his semi-final collision course with world number one Roger Federer.

Mathieu, having slipped 2-0 behind heading into the third set, easily held his serve in the opening game and then stunned Roddick by securing the crucial break in the second.

The American was struggling on first service and Mathieu pounced, keeping his opponent pinned in the left corner before firing an impressive winner.

Mathieu, ranked 39th in the world, had defeated seeds David Ferrer and Ivan Ljubicic during his passage into the fourth round and now it was Roddick's turn to struggle against his crisp play from the baseline.

But it was not just Mathieu's brilliance doing the damage as Roddick was making a host of unforced errors that had been absent from his game yesterday.

Now Mathieu's serve had become impenetrable and Roddick waved his hands in frustration in the seventh as he continued to come off second best in most rallies.

But serving for the set, Mathieu's composure suddenly deserted him with two long forehands, an undercooked dropped shot and wide backhand allowing Roddick to break back.

The world number three had seized his opportunity brilliantly and the set went into a tie break - only for the balance of power to shift once again.

Mathieu raced into a 5-0 lead and Roddick hurled his racket to the ground in disgust, but the outburst clearly worked as he hauled himself back into the reckoning before saving set point to level 6-6.

It was then Roddick's turn to secure set point which he won with the help of a slip from Mathieu, taking the set 7-6 (8-6) and booking a quarter-final appointment with either Richard Gasquet or Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.