Updated: June 9, 2005, 12:19 PM ET Roddick stays alive in title defense; Ancic fallsReuters LONDON -- Defending champion Andy Roddick battled through to the quarterfinals of the Stella Artois Championships on Thursday with a testing 6-2, 3-6, 6-4 victory over Slovakian Karol Beck. "I've lost a couple of tight ones recently, so it was big for me to stick around and hang in there and win one the tough way," Roddick said. Croatian fifth seed Mario Ancic, however, was eliminated when he lost 7-5, 1-6, 6-3 in the third round to gifted French teenager Richard Gasquet in the pre-Wimbledon grasscourt event. Second seed Roddick, winner at Queen's Club in 2003 and 2004, was second best for much of his match against Beck but the world No. 44 cracked when serving at 4-5 in the third set. "After the first set I think he really stepped up his game," Roddick said. ``A lot of times he was just coming up with the goods and getting the lead early in the service games." Beck doubled-faulted twice in succession to hand the American an unexpected match point and blazed a backhand out to lose his serve and with it a match in which his drop shots and variation caused Roddick all sorts of problems. "He played well, very smart and very crafty," said Roddick, the runner-up at Wimbledon last year. "I'm just happy to get through." Roddick finished with 13 aces. He's trying to join John McEnroe and Lleyton Hewitt as the only players to win three consecutive titles at this Wimbledon warmup event. The world No. 4 will play either French seventh seed Sebastien Grosjean, whom he beat in each of the last two Queen's finals, or American James Blake in the last eight. Tenth seed Gasquet, who has never progressed beyond the first round at Queen's before, took a significant pre-Wimbledon scalp to show he can translate his impressive clay-court form on to the slicker surface. The 18-year-old, who reached the Hamburg Masters final last month, edged the first set against 2004 Wimbledon semifinalist Ancic. After a second-set lapse Gasquet dominated the decider to set up a quarterfinal against either Briton Greg Rusedski or Czech Radek Stepanek. http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=2081003 -- http://0rz.net/5e0p9 Marion Raven (M2M) --

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