Andy Roddick did not appear to be missing the services of a coach during his 7-6 6-2 quarter-final victory over Spanish second seed Rafael Nadal in the Dubai Championships on Thursday.

The sixth-seeded American, who said he had parted ways with his coach Jimmy Connors, will next face third seed Novak Djokovic after the Serbian swept aside Russia's Igor Andreev 6-2 6-1.

Roddick placed Rafa under pressure from the start, holding serve with the first of his 17 aces and then forced Rafa to save four break points to level at 1-1. With both players refusing to cave in and saving numerous break points, the set headed into a tiebreak. Rafa swiftly took a 3-0 lead but Roddick fired two successive aces to keep pace and eventually claimed it 7-5.

"I felt I was getting the best of him throughout the set, and then all of a sudden I'm down 3-0 in the tiebreaker pretty quick and that was a little discouraging", said Roddick.

Roddick surprisingly faced little resistance in the second. Rafa began to make far more errors and after Roddick broke twice to lead 4-1. A 241 kph ace set up match point and he closed it with yet another ace. "It's a fast court, the crowd was really into it and the atmosphere was great. I wasn't going to get better conditions for myself against Rafa. I knew that and tried to take advantage," said the former world number one.

Rafa admitted that Roddick's powerful serve had put his own game under pressure. "You feel a lot of pressure when you are serving because if you lose any serve, the way he was serving tonight it's tough," said Nadal. "But in a way I am not disappointed with my game tonight. I didn't play badly."

IN OTHER NEWS: Rafa as a person, not the tennis player.

Rafael Nadal Perera or ‘Rafa’ as his father calls him, continues to be the same kind of person we have been seeing for the past years here. Full commitment to the game win or lose, his on court aggression and fist pumping reactions in tense situations come out of sheer involvement on a personal level.

Crowds go to the stadia all over the world to see his powerful yet entertaining game, and court reactions which are not vulgar or arrogant. In fact he reminds us of a Red Indian warrior in fill cry with his long hair, tied head band, long Bermuda style shorts and short sleeves tee-shirt.

Off the court, he is one of the easiest persons to talk to and is not afraid to express himself freely on any subject and neither does he deliberate before talking. The impression that we have about him not being an ŒI’ specialist, holds good every time we run into him. Rafael in short, is an individual without any pretensions.

The only player anywhere near the standard to push Roger Federer hard today is this 21-year-old Spaniard who loves his home town of Manacor on Mallorca island, a place he never forgets to mention in a conversation of some length. On Tuesday, he was full of praise for Federer whose first round defeat, Nadal reckons is only human. “Remember, Roger has been so consistent for so many weeks for so many years, we cannot come to any conclusion about his decline.

“Just wait, Roger who had no big events after the Australian Open, will recover in a week’s time before he goes for titles again,” said Rafa, “he has a strong personality and is a wonderful player on the Tour.” Rafael continued, “We are all vulnerable and one has to be to a certain extend, otherwise we will never learn and live life better.”

“From each experience we have to learn and learn very fast, otherwise on a circuit like the one we have today, we cannot survive at whatever levels we are in,” said the world number two for the past two years. “It was a tough match,” said Rafael after his win against German Philipp Kohlschreiber on Tuesday.

“I didn’t play my best, that’s true, but it’s not easy playing here. Every player is a big player in one of the toughest draws on the tour for sure. I was coming without my best confidence because I had a strange loss in Rotterdam, he added. It’s important coming back, winning a match like this. Starting the match 2-0, then losing the first set and five games in a row. Luckily I was 100 per cent mentally into the situation, otherwise it would have been even tougher. Maybe I didn’t play the best tennis, but mentally I was very positive and fighting for every point".