What John Roddick endured Friday was not a life-or-death situation like Ken Venturi's miraculous struggle through dehydration to the 1964 U.S. Open golf championship. Nor was it nearly as visible as Kerri Strug's meaningless yet moving sprained-ankle vault in the 1996 Olympics.

But the few hundred who were in Henry Feild Stadium during the late afternoon hours Friday saw the college tennis version of those dramatic triumphs of an athlete over his body, and will likely remember Roddick's performance just as vividly.

The Georgia senior, fighting his own shaky play in the beginning and a bad bout of cramps and exhaustion at the end, came back to survive a 3½-hour slugfest with No. 7 seed Robert Samuelsson of Tulane in the NCAA quarterfinals, taking a 2-6, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (10) win for a berth in today's semifinals. Roddick will meet Stanford's Bob Bryan, the No. 6 seed, at 10 a.m. at Henry Feild Stadium, but it's doubtful anything Roddick and Bryan put together this morning will compare to what happened Friday.

"In my opinion, that match ranks up there with the very, very best that's ever been played here at Henry Feild Stadium," said Georgia head coach Manuel Diaz. "You saw today one of the greatest competitors to ever wear the red and black."

Roddick, who played poorly throughout the first set and needed a few violent verbal outbursts to psyche himself through a mediocre second set, left everything he could possibly give on center court at the end. Playing his second match of the day (he beat Stanford's Ryan Wolters 6-4, 6-4 in the morning) and his 13th in the last week, Roddick appeared tired much of the third set. But everything came to a head when he fell behind 6-5 in the third.

After taking a few sips of water during the changeover, Roddick slowly crawled onto the ground, his legs cramping. Diaz and trainer Steve Bryant applied bags of ice and cold towels to Roddick for several minutes, and he eventually was helped back up to continue, hobbling to the baseline to take his serve.

Somehow, Roddick willed himself through the game, and blasted an ace down the middle of the court to force a tiebreaker. As the tiebreaker began, it didn't appear Roddick would be strong enough to hold on until one player reached the requisite seven points to take the game. But he had more in his tank than anyone expected.

Samuelsson had two early match points, leading 6-4, then 6-5 in the tiebreaker, but Roddick won each point. Roddick had one of his own, up 7-6, but couldn't convert. On and on it dragged, with the crowd adding quick shouts of encouragement each time he faltered.

Roddick survived another Samuelsson match point at 8-7, and another at 9-8, when he served up another ace to even the tiebreaker at 9-9. On the next point, Roddick whiffed on a forehand attempt, not coming close to hitting the ball, and he appeared doomed again, down another match point. But the score quickly swung to 10-10, then 11-10 in Roddick's favor after a Samuelsson return went long.

The final point was a classic: a long rally featuring key shots by both players, with silence hovering over the stadium, save the ball coming off the racket. Roddick had Samuelsson on the run, and after a nice save by the Tulane All-American, Roddick had an open court for a volley attempt. It went down, and Roddick's arms went up, as the stadium erupted in celebration of the most improbable NCAA tournament victories in recent memory.

Roddick tossed his racket in the air, acknowledged the cheers, then slumped into the net on the adjacent Court No. 3. He was helped up to receive congratulations, then all but carried from the court by Diaz and Roddick's father, Jerry. Halfway across center court, Stanford's Paul Goldstein rushed in to embrace Roddick, whose face was pale. Once outside the stadium, Roddick was put in a waiting minivan and driven to the University Health Center for treatment.

Meanwhile, his opponent was disappointed, but not shocked.

"What can I say?" Samuelsson shrugged afterward. "Roddick just did a great job. I had my chance, I didn't take it, and Roddick fought hard, and he's a good winner."

That was quite a statement, considering Roddick's behavior earlier in the match. Trailing 4-2 in the second set, Roddick took exception to Samuelsson calling one of his shots out. He screamed at the umpire about Samuelsson calling every close ball in the match out, then turned his anger directly to his opponent.

"Play fair!" he yelled, then added, as he lined up to serve, "Cheater!"

Roddick could have been called for a code violation for the outburst, thus dropping himself into a 5-2 hole, but he wasn't. In fact, on the next ball Samuelsson called out, which indeed appeared an inch or two past the line, the chair umpire overruled the Tulane player, giving Roddick the point.

Samuelsson and his coach were incensed, but Roddick had himself and the partisan crowd back in the match, and everything was different from that point on. Roddick has now advanced as far in the singles tournament as any Bulldog since Wade McGuire lost in the finals in 1992 and '93.

Diaz was asked after the match about the effect of the grueling afternoon on Roddick's semifinal chances, and offered a quick response: "Who cares?"

"Knowing John, he's going to get a couple (IV) bags and he's going to compete, and that's what makes me so proud," Diaz continued. "I was proud of him win or lose. He was out of it so many times and kind of crawled himself back in there, and that's about it. That's about as good a performance as we've ever had on these courts."

Earlier Friday, Georgia junior Hisham Hemeda bowed out of his first NCAA singles tournament with a 6-4, 6-2 loss to George Bastl of Southern Cal, a 1997 NCAA singles finalist. Hemeda finished his season at 36-7 in singles play, while Bastl lost to Bob Bryan in his second match of the day.

"I thought I could overpower him on the baseline, move things around, but it went the other way," said Hemeda. "I came really close in a lot of games, but I lost concentration a little bit, and he came up with some big serves. He was too good today."