updated 9:50 a.m. ET Aug. 30, 2008

NEW YORK - Maybe Andy Roddick was right. Maybe his racket was to blame. Maybe that inanimate object — rendered a mangled mess by being slammed to the court not once but twice by a fumbling and frustrated Roddick — truly was at fault.

Had to be. Couldn’t have been Roddick’s own poor performance to that point. Or the fine play on display from the younger, less-experienced, less-accomplished version of Roddick on the opposite side of the net, unseeded Ernests Gulbis of Latvia.

What else could explain the way Roddick went from a big deficit late Friday night to a big lead in the wee hours of Saturday morning and, eventually, a 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, 7-5 victory over Gulbis in the second round of the U.S. Open?

Perhaps it was no coincidence that Roddick turned things around so completely after spiking his equipment. He had just missed two groundstrokes to fall behind by a set and a break against a 40th-ranked kid who never has won a tournament title, much less a major championship. Moments later, Roddick, winner of the 2003 U.S. Open and a former No. 1, was down 5-3 in the second set.

And then, just like that, buoyed by a raucous partisan crowd, the American collected seven games in a row — and collected control of the match.

“I probably loosened up a bit,” Roddick said, reflecting on the way he treated his racket.

“I just broke it a couple times — just to be thorough,” he said.

Roddick has had a tough season, having lost in the third round of the Australian Open, pulled out of the French Open because of a right shoulder injury, then bowed out at Wimbledon in the second round.

He bypassed the Beijing Olympics, hoping to be better prepared for the U.S. Open by staying on this side of the world. His U.S. Open nearly ended quite early, but he credited the partisan crowd with helping.

“You guys kept me in there when I was losing my head,” Roddick told the Arthur Ashe Stadium fans at match’s end. “If this crowd comes with me the whole way, who knows?”

He thrived in the atmosphere, as spectators serenaded him with chants of “An-dy Rodd-ick” and danced in the aisles during changeovers — a scene he thought might throw off Gulbis.

“It felt like a party in the stadium on switchovers,” Roddick said with a wink. “I don’t think he’s even old enough to go out yet, is he? I knew I had him then.”

Roddick was joined in the third round by the man who beat him in the 2006 U.S. Open final, four-time defending champion Roger Federer.

They could meet in the semifinals this year. Federer beat 137th-ranked Thiago Alves 6-3, 7-5, 6-4, then made sure everyone is aware that he’s not completely focused on the man who beat him in the French Open and Wimbledon finals and recently replaced him at No. 1 in the rankings, Rafael Nadal.

Indeed, Federer said he hadn’t seen Nadal play yet at the year’s last Grand Slam tournament.

“I schedule my life around my life, not his,” Federer said, smiling.

So you didn’t watch Nadal’s second-round, straight-set victory?

“I was expecting five sets,” Federer said. “I was there for four and five, but he wasn’t there anymore.”

Federer was to get another chance to watch his nemesis on Saturday, when Nadal was scheduled to play Viktor Troicki. Others slated to play Saturday included sisters Venus and Serena Williams, the only past champions left in the women’s tournament.

That’s because 1998 winner Lindsay Davenport and 2004 winner Svetlana Kuznetsova both lost Friday.

A day after No. 1 Ana Ivanovic was stunned by 188th-ranked Julie Coin, third-seeded Kutznetsova was upset by Katarina Srebotnik 6-3, 6-7 (1), 6-3.

“It can happen with everyone,” said Olympic champion Elena Dementieva, who moved into the fourth round.

Davenport hit seven consecutive faults, part of a game in which she double-faulted four times, and lost to 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Marion Bartoli 6-1, 7-6 (3).

“I guess they call it ’the yips’ on your serve. I don’t know where it came from,” Davenport said. “Probably came from all my years making fun of people that had it. That was my karma coming back.”

Roddick’s serve was just fine, thank you, over the final two sets against Gulbis — not allowing so much as one break point in that span.

Like Roddick, Gulbis relies on a powerful serve and stinging forehand.

“When he steps up and is hitting his shots, he hits so hard there’s not a lot you can do. He literally just cracks the ball,” Roddick said. “I just tried sticking around and mixed up the paces a little bit.”

Also like Roddick, Gulbis is prone to mental lapses. As much talent as Gulbis has — he did, after all, reach the fourth round at last year’s U.S. Open and the quarterfinals at this year’s French Open — he has yet to show any consistency. That is why he entered this match with a 32-34 career record.

There’s one other, coincidental, thing they have in common: Both players celebrated birthdays Saturday, Roddick turning 26, Gulbis

20. In truth, of course, only Roddick was able to celebrate fully when the match finished a little after 1:30 a.m.

“He was definitely outplaying me for the first two sets. I felt like a little kid out here playing against him,” Roddick said. “And then the clock struck 12, and I started playing, well, as a 26-year-old.”

As Roddick struck the ball better and better, the frequency of Gulbis’ winners dipped while the frequency of his errors rose substantially.

Roddick gathered himself after taking out his anger on his racket when two groundstroke errors allowed Gulbis to break for a 4-3 lead in the second set. Soon after it was 5-3 for Gulbis, who then got to serve for a two-set lead at 5-4.

At 30-all, with Gulbis having gone 14-for-15 on points at the net until then, Roddick smacked a forehand passing shot on the run to earn a break point. The American might have had reason to doubt his chances there, given that he was 0-for-4 on break points so far. But Roddick finally came through when Gulbis sailed a forehand long.

“I was disappointed in the second set. I think I should have finished it,” Gulbis said. “I wouldn’t have won the match already. But it would have been a big step.”

Gulbis dictated play throughout and ended up with far more winners, 79 to 42, and unforced errors, 60 to 21. But the eighth-seeded Roddick never faced a break point in the third or fourth set.

“Tonight was probably one of those ones I won on effort,” Roddick said.

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