Andy Roddick's preparation for the US Open suffered a jolt when the ninth-ranked American suffered a lop-sided 6-3 6-3 defeat to Frenchman Gilles Simon in the third round of the Washington Classic on Thursday.
The second-seeded Roddick struggled to maintain any consistency, landing only 55 percent of his first serves and was out-aced by the Frenchman 7-3 during the 69-minute match.
Simon, ranked 33rd and seeded 13th in Washington, made the most of his chances, converting three of five break-point chances while never losing his own serve.
He broke Roddick in the second game of the final set to take a 2-0 lead and served out the match. Simon had failed to win a set against Roddick in their two prior meetings.
In other matches, top seeded Czech Tomas Berdych continued to shake off the rust in his first tournament since reaching the Wimbledon final in early July, overcoming a second-set wobble before beating Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan 6-3 5-7 7-5.
Berdych beat Golubev in straight sets at Wimbledon but knew this time would be tougher.
"He's really improved in the last few weeks," he said. "He won his first ATP tournament in Hamburg (last month). He can play."
