INDIANAPOLIS – Nothing quite like a tiebreaker to get Andy Roddick going.

Roddick fell into a big deficit and faced three match points before coming back to beat Ivan Ljubicic 1-6, 7-6 (10), 7-6 (3) Saturday in the RCA Championships semifinals.

Roddick, who improved to 14-1 in tiebreakers since the French Open, will face Nicolas Kiefer in Sunday’s final. Kiefer breezed past Gregory Carraz 6-2, 6-2 in the other semifinal.

The second-ranked American is trying to become the tournament’s first repeat champion since Pete Sampras in 1991-92.

“He outplayed me for two sets, plain and simple,” Roddick said. “I was a little luckier than he was. I’d like to take credit for today, but I don’t know.”

It was their first match since Ljubicic railed against Roddick after losing to him at the U.S. Open last year. The Croatian said then Roddick was too loud and was unliked by other players.

After defeating third-seeded Sebastien Grosjean on Friday to get to Roddick, Ljubicic said he was looking for some revenge against Roddick.

For most of the first two sets, it looked like he would get it.

Ljubicic frustrated Roddick with well-placed drop shots, forcing him to come to the net from his preferred position slamming forehands from the baseline.

Down 4-1 in the first set, Roddick was warned after he slammed a ball into the stands. He also shook his head or muttered to himself often after errors and changed rackets in the 12th game of the second set.

But his shots were right on target when they had to be. He saved three match points in the second-set tiebreaker.

Roddick hit service winners at 6-5 and 8-7. And at 10-9, he hit a 126 mph ace, then another ace at 120 mph to get to set point, then evened the match when the 10th-seeded Ljubicic double-faulted.

The long tiebreaker seemed to take its toll on Ljubicic, who was coming off a grueling match against Grosjean in the quarterfinals.

He labored noticeably in the final set and didn’t have enough in the tank to hang with Roddick in the tiebreaker.

“Maybe I just lost a lot of energy saving all those points,” Ljubicic said.

While Ljubicic surprisingly showcased the better serve with 24 aces to Roddick’s 11, Roddick came up with the big serves when he needed them most.

“It’s difficult to say why I lost. I don’t feel like I lost,” Ljubicic said. “I cannot say I’m disappointed, because I did everything well.”

Except for in the final tiebreaker, when he faded after Roddick uncorked a 146-mph ace to go up 5-2.

Roddick will face the 12th-seeded Kiefer, who rode a hot return game to an easy win over Carraz.

Kiefer kept Carraz off balance with an array of drop shots and lobs to the back corner.

“He had the response for every shot I had,” Carraz said. “I don’t know many mistakes he made during the match.”

Carraz did not help himself with several unforced errors. Down 4-2 in the second set, Carraz screamed at himself after hitting a shot into the net.

Kiefer is headed to his fourth final of the season, and second in a row, but has yet to win this year. He lost to Tommy Haas in last week’s final of the Mercedes-Benz Cup in Los Angeles.

When asked how he matched up with the hard-serving Roddick, the German said, “What should I think?

“I feel very good. My return is very good. It’s a question of breaking his serve. Ljubicic did that today.”

Roddick has faced Kiefer just once, winning 6-4, 6-3 in Cincinnati in 2002.

AP-ES-07-24-04 1844EDT