Roddick comes off second best to Federer and umpire

Melbourne: Andy Roddick fought two separate battles at the Australian Open on Thursday and lost them both. The American was battered 6-2 7-5 7-5 by Roger Federer in the semi-final and also came off second best in a row with Spanish chair umpire Enric Molina.

Roddick became increasingly agitated at a series of line calls that went against him and began arguing with Molina and his frustrations boiled over in the final set when he was issued with a code violation for swearing.

"The guy made a judgment call. I didn't agree with the judgment call. I made it known," Roddick told a news conference. "I asked pointed questions that when he answered them they completely contradicted what he said before. What do you want me to say?" Federer said he found the exchanges amusing. "I'm used to Andy's attitude on court. He's got a great attitude," the Swiss said.

"He has a lot of energy and he always likes to talk to the crowd, make jokes, talk to the umpire. "He's a funny guy. I like Andy, we go way back. I enjoy those moments more than they disturb me." While Federer may enjoy Roddick's slapstick humour, his admiration does not allow for any charity and Thursday's win was his 16th against the American in 18 clashes.

"The thing about Roger is you can know where to go (on the court) and you can still come out on the bad end of it sometimes," Roddick said. "That's where it differs from a lot of people. A lot of people you know exactly what have to do and the majority of the time you execute it, you're going to come out on the good end of it. "That part is a little bit frustrating at times.

Overall, it was an okay match. He just beat me. It's plain and simple." Despite his loss, Roddick said he was still encouraged by his overall performance in Australia after reaching his first grand slam semi-final in two years. "I hit the ball pretty well and there's a whole laundry list of positives.

Overall, I think it was a good event," he said. "Hopefully I can build on this a little bit. If I can keep my form through the first couple weeks here and from Doha, I should have a better year than the last couple. "As long as I decide to play this game, I'm going to do what I can to try to improve out there. There's no reason for me not to."