Roddick exits Los Angeles with side strain

LOS ANGELES, July 29 (Reuters) Top seed Andy Roddick pulled out of the Los Angeles Open because of a muscle strain on his left side.

The world number 10 suffered the injury in his second-round match with fellow American Scott Oudsema on Thursday, and considering quitting before winning 6-7 6-3 6-2.

With his quarter-final match set for last evening, Roddick consulted with his trainer Doug Spreen and his new coach Jimmy Connors before deciding to exit the tournament and avoid further injury.

''You always want to finish a tournament on your terms and not pull out with an injury,'' 2003 US Open champion Roddick said in a statement. ''It's really disappointing.

''It's improved, but last night I had trouble taking my socks off after the match. I literally couldn't bend over at all. There's improvement, but certainly not enough to even consider playing.'' Spreen added: Over the next couple of days, we will focus on treatment to reduce the pain and inflammation.

''We evaluate the strain on a daily basis.'' Roddick, who dropped out of the top 10 in the rankings this month for the first time since 2002, clearly has next month's US Open on his mind.

''I need to really look at the big picture,'' he said. ''I'm not going to risk all I have going for me now.'' The 23-year-old reached the final of last week's RCA Championships in Indianapolis before losing 4-6 6-4 7-6 to Davis Cup team mate James Blake.

Roddick had been scheduled to meet Russian Dmitry Tursunov in the last eight in Los Angeles. Tursunov, the eighth seed, gets a bye into the last four where he will meet Chile's Fernando Gonzalez.

Roddick, whose last ATP title came in Lyon last October, hopes to play his next event in Washington next week.

''At this point it's guarded optimism, that's for sure,'' he said. ''I'd be hopeful, but nothing more than that at this point.'' REUTERS PM RAI0900