Roddick withdraws from Masters Cup

Nov 12, 2008 - 11:11 AM SHANGHAI, China (Ticker) -- American Andy Roddick pulled out of the season-ending Masters Cup on Wednesday with a right ankle injury.

The world No. 6, Roddick, a three-time title winner in 2008, suffered the injury during practice on Tuesday following his defeat by fourth ranked Andy Murray on Monday.

The Czech Republic's Radek Stepanek, ranked 27th in the world, will step in to take the former U.S. Open champion's place in the red group at the eight-man tournament and will face two-time defending champion Roger Federer later on Wednesday.

"When I was doing a warm-up drill in practice I just went over on it, and we tried as much as we could to get it better," Roddick said. "I can't really stop and start very quickly, when I go over on the outside it hurts. And so I do that a lot on my serve also, so it's definitely a tough prospect trying to beat Roger with no serve and not being able to move much."

After finishing in the world's top 10 for the seventh consecutive season, the 26-year-old Roddick does not expect the injury to affect his preparations for next year with the Australian Open beginning in Melbourne on January 19.

"They don't think it's too long term, which is nice," he said. "It's unfortunate for this event as far as I go, but I don't think we're looking at anything more than a week or so. Which in the grand scheme of things is good news considering the nature of the injury."