Roddick has won the San Jose stop three times and reached the semis in eight of his nine appearances in the tournament.
"He hits the ball so hard and so flat that it kind of keeps you off balance," Roddick said. "You feel like you're scrapping and clawing trying to hang on."
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad hereThere were moments the American star looked ready to throw his racket, but he managed to take control.
"I have a lot of experience in being hacked off and it played to my favor in dealing with the frustration," Roddick said. "He forced me to play well. He made one mistake in each of the tiebreaks and that was pretty much the difference."
Roddick and Berdych combined for 34 aces.
"I made no bones about the fact that I would have to work my way into this event," Roddick said. "You don't always have to feel comfortable to win a tennis match. There was not a rhythm to it and it was a matter of getting through it."
Roddick also said that a knee injury sustained earlier in the season that almost kept out of the tournament, "was an issue at this point."
Roddick will face No. 7 Sam Querrey, a 6-4, 6-3 winner over Michael Russell.
In the other semifinal, second-seeded Fernando Verdasco of Spain will play Uzbekistan's Denis Istomin. Verdasco overcame a sore right hamstring to beat qualifier Ricardas Berankis 6-3, 7-6 (5), and Istomin beat sixth-seeded Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany 6-1, 1-6, 6-3.
"I've been getting treatment for it and that's all I can do," Verdasco said. "Since the first moment I played here it's feeling pretty good and even moreso now."
The 19-year-old Berankis became the first Lithuanian-born player to reach an ATP World Tour quarterfinal.
"He's going to be a good player," Verdasco said about the former top-ranked junior player. "He has a good serve and he's young."
© 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Roddick wins in straight sets at SAP OpenAtletico place one foot in final
