Andy Roddick earned his 500th career win yesterday evening, defeating fellow American Sam Querrey in Rock Creek Park. The milestone puts him in an elite rank of only four active players that includes Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, and Carlos Moya. The win puts him in today’s quarterfinal round.

Service was uncharacteristically off for both players in the early going of the match, with each dropping their first service game in a back-and-forth set. Querrey showed from the outset that he was not intimidated by Roddick, cleanly returning most of what the tournament’s top seed could throw his way. Each player felt the other out through several lengthy baseline volleys. Querrey forced Roddick to make several defensive lobs, one so gift-wrapped that Querrey had plenty of time and height to smash the ball far above Roddick’s head and into the stands.

But as Roddick stayed composed and worked to keep Querrey moving, a call from Hawkeye — tennis’s high tech review system — finally went his way to confirm a double fault, and the set was officially Andy’s.

“The first game was terrible [but] I’ve been able to kind of get over stuff a little bit faster, and stay on course,” said Roddick of the set. “When I broke back the second time, I said ‘this is my set to win now,’ and it worked out that way.”