Nadal beats countryman Ferrer in straight sets; Federer ousted in Miami

Rafael Nadal won a grinding two-hour battle with fellow Spaniard David Ferrer Tuesday to reach the Sony Ericsson Open quarter-finals as his comeback continues to gather momentum.

After a dour struggle in the first set in which both players traded heavy blows from the baseline, Nadal looked headed for a routine win when he raced to a 3-0 lead in the second. But Ferrer continued to attack and pushed Nadal all the way before the six-time Grand Slam champion triumphed 7-6(5), 6-4 in 1 hr., 57 mins.

Nadal is playing just his fourth tournament of the season, but already boasts an impressive 15-3 mark on the year. At Indian Wells two weeks ago, in his first outing since retiring in the Australian Open quarter-finals with a right knee injury, Nadal reached the semi-finals and won the doubles title.

Nadal next meets powerful Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, against whom he owns a 4-1 lead in their head-to-head series. But Tsonga enjoyed a convincing win over Nadal in the 2008 Australian Open semi-finals. The winner of the Nadal-Tsonga match will play the winner of the Andy Roddick-Nicolas Almagro quarter-final.

Czech Tomas Berdych saved a match point in a pulsating third-set tie-break to snap an eight-match losing streak against Roger Federer and send the top seed crashing out of the Sony Ericsson Open Tuesday night.

In a riveting 2 hr., 51 min. contest that finished at 12.15 a.m. a record Tuesday night session crowd of 12,804 fans frequently broke into a chorus of ‘Roger, Roger’ to cheer on Federer, who had been within two points of defeat in the second set.

But, just as he had lost in a third-set tie-break after holding three match points against Marcos Baghdatis in his last outing in Indian Wells, the support of fans was not enough to spare Federer the same fate in Miami.

Federer had the match on his racquet at 6-5 in the deciding tie-break, but Berdych responded with two massive forehands – the shot that had troubled the Swiss all night – to set up his first match point, which he converted when Federer hit his 61st and final unforced error, sending a forehand long.


Tuesday, 30 March 2010

Singles - Fourth Round
[16] T Berdych (CZE) d. [1] R Federer (SUI) 64 67(3) 76(6)
[4] R Nadal (ESP) d. [15] D Ferrer (ESP) 76(5) 64
[5] R Soderling (SWE) d. [9] F Gonzalez (CHI) 60 67(3) 62
[6] A Roddick (USA) d. B Becker (GER) 76(4) 63
[10] F Verdasco (ESP) d. [7] M Cilic (CRO) 64 76(3)
[8] J Tsonga (FRA) d. [12] J Ferrero (ESP) 62 62
[13] M Youzhny (RUS) d. M Fish (USA) 61 10 ret. (back)
[33] N Almagro (ESP) d. [27] T Bellucci (BRA) 64 36 76(3)

Federer survives Serra challenge; Cilic gets 20th win of the year in Miami

Normally one of the most ruthless ‘closers’ in the game, top seed Roger Federer won on points instead of delivering a knockout blow to Frenchman Florent Serra in the Sony Ericsson Open third round Monday.

Federer suffered lapses when seemingly in control of both sets. He was broken when serving for the first set at 5-3 and ultimately needed a tie-break to close out the set. Then, leading 4-1 with a double break in the second, Federer was broken when he was cruising to victory.

He fell behind 0-30 in his next service game but steadied, only to lose his following service game when trying to close out the match at 5-4. Again he was taken to a tie-break, which he won routinely to clinch a 7-6(2), 7-6(3) win.

“Sure, I still have to tidy up my game a bit, having had one break up in the first and two breaks up in the second; it's normally something that doesn't get away from me. But I thought he came up with some good stuff, and that made it difficult for me to close it out… I don't think I gave it to him. I think he went to get it, which is a big difference.

“The most important [thing] is to come through the rounds. So I don't have a preference how it's done. I always like to come out with confidence, that's for sure. So it's nice to having won two breakers, because that doesn't happen every match you play.”

Seventh seed Marin Cilic claimed his 20th match win of the year with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis on Monday at the Sony Ericsson Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tournament in Miami.

Both players dropped just four points on their first serve and little separated them from the ground, but the Croatian did not offer up a break point and converted the two opportunities he had on Baghdatis’ serve.

Baghdatis was looking to upset a Top 10 player for a second consecutive tournament after defeating World No. 1 Roger Federer two weeks ago in Indian Wells.

Cilic next faces 10th-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, who rallied past Austrian Jurgen Melzer 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-1. Melzer failed to capitalize on his five break point opportunities in the second set, allowing Verdasco to come back and claim the victory in just over two hours.


Monday, 29 March 2010

Singles - Third Round
[1] R Federer (SUI) d F Serra (FRA) 76(2) 76(3)
[5] R Soderling (SWE) d P Petzschner (GER) 61 62
[7] M Cilic (CRO) d [25] M Baghdatis (CYP) 63 64
[9] F Gonzalez (CHI) d [22] J Monaco (ARG) 67(4) 64 62
[10] F Verdasco (ESP) d [23] J Melzer (AUT) 36 76(4) 61
[13] M Youzhny (RUS) d [19] S Wawrinka (SUI) 16 76(5) 75
[16] T Berdych (CZE) d H Zeballos (ARG) 64 75
M Fish (USA) d [29] F Lopez (ESP) 75 63

Serbia edges over USA to reach Davis Cup quarters

Serbia and USA had a close encounter with each rubber having to count. Serbia won the first 2 rubbers with Troicki and Djokovic winning them. The American team didn't have Roddick on their team and suffered a scare when Mike Bryan got food poisoning and couldn't compete in the doubles with brother Bob Bryan so Bob had to play with John Isner instead. They did win the doubles but Djokovic stopped the USA hopes by winning a tight five-setter against John Isner and then Sam Querrey won the dead rubber against Troicki.

Russia also had a close match against India with no Davydenko or Safin on their team and so Youzhny and Kunitsyn had to step in instead. They did win their singles rubbers but were beaten in the doubles to make the tie 3-2 to Russia. Argentina also had a memorable win against Sweden with the out-of-injury David Nalbandian helping them get it by winning their doubles rubber and the last singles rubber to take them to the quarters as well with a score of 3-2.