Croatian Marin Cilic upset sixth-seeded Andy Roddick 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 on Thursday, forcing the US player onto a list of surprise early casualties that includes top-ranked Roger Federer at the Masters Series event.
“His aggressiveness is what won him that match,” Roddick said. “He took it to me a lot more than I took it to him.”
Defending champion Novak Djokovic advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Robin Soderling, and second-seeded Rafael Nadal moved on by beating Igor Andreev of Russia 6-2, 7-6 (1).
PHOTO: AP
Four of the top six seeds have been eliminated.
No. 2 Nadal looked to have his game well in hand in the first set. Down 15-30 in the first game, Andreev rolled his left ankle. He took a timeout, got medical attention, and continued. Nadal then put him to work.
He kept Andreev on the run and placed his shots in the court with stunning accuracy.
Nadal faltered slightly in the second set but ultimately found the energy to move on.
“I played a very good match, 100 percent better than yesterday,” he said.
Nadal wasn’t troubled by being forced to a second-set tiebreak.
“I know I’m going to have tough sets and tough matches,” he said. “So the 7-6 against Andreev is nothing strange. It’s completely normal.”
With several top players already eliminated, the road to the final has been blown wide open.
“I just pay attention to my matches,” Djokovic said. “Having the role of a favorite in most matches I play, obviously I’m put in a lot of pressure.”
“I have a lot of responsibilities and expectations, so it’s not easy,” he said.
Against Soderling, “I played more or less at the level which was satisfying for me,” Djokovic said.
Roddick claimed he had not been looking past Cilic at a draw that no longer featured Federer in the way.
“I don’t know if I’m playing well enough right now to look ahead in the draw,” he said.
Gilles Simon, who upset the top-ranked Federer on Wednesday, advanced with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Jose Acasuso. Fourth-seeded Davydenko became another upset victim Thursday night when he lost 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Nicolas Kiefer, and No. 5 Ferrer was ousted soon after with a 6-3, 6-3 loss to 10th-seeded Richard Gasquet.
Eighth-seeded Andy Murray of Britain advanced with a 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 win over ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland, and No. 7 seed James Blake beat Dmitry Tursunov 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
Murray said he would have to be on top of his game against Djokovic.
“If I play the way I did in the first set, I have a chance of winning,” he said. “If I play like I did in the second set, I’m going to get killed.”
Cilic broke an indifferent-looking Roddick in the third and seventh games before taking the first set, despite a shaky 50 percent first-serve percentage.
Roddick rebounded in the second set, perhaps drawing inspiration from a crowd that was firmly in his corner.
“[The] crowd helped him a little bit to get his mental side back,” Cilic said.
Roddick broke him in the eighth game and again in the 10th, when Cilic’s double fault evened the match and earned a fist-pumping Roddick a rousing ovation.
But the 19-year-old Cilic wasn’t fazed. He broke Roddick in the first game of the next set, and Roddick couldn’t get it back.
“I was moving him around quite good and exposing him on both sides,” said Cilic, ranked 44th in the world.
“That was working very well. He obviously didn’t have a lot of chances to attack, which was a really good thing for me,” he said.
Cilic, who will play Simon in the quarter -finals, said the win stands among the best of his career.
“You don’t have a chance to beat top 10 players every month, so it’s a good effort,” he said.
■ EAST WEST BANK
AP, CARSON, California
Jelena Jankovic rode her improved serve to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Melinda Czink of Hungary in the East West Bank Classic on Thursday, keeping the top-seeded Serb on course to take over the No. 1 ranking.
Jankovic served seven aces in beating “lucky loser” Czink, who lost in the second round of qualifying but got into the main draw when Svetlana Kuznetsova withdrew because of an injured right knee.
Jankovic can dislodge countrywoman Ana Ivanovic from the top ranking by winning the tournament, her first since injuring her right knee at Wimbledon.
“There’s no pain and I’m really happy about that,” she said. “My legs are a little bit hurting. I’m not used to playing matches every day and playing after not doing anything for two weeks. Now it’s time to get in shape.”
Jankovic served seven aces — never her strong suit. Her serve bailed her out at love-40, 2-all to win that game. She connected on just 28 percent of her first serves on Wednesday, but improved to 63 percent on Thursday, when she won 81 percent of her first-serve points.
“If I could hit this serve every day like that, my life would be so much easier,” she said, laughing. “You don’t have to break a sweat and you’re winning games.”
Third-seeded Anna Chakvetadze of Russia was upset by 14th-seeded Sybille Bammer, 6-4, 5-7, 6-2. Also dismissed was No. 5 Vera Zvonareva, who lost 6-4, 7-5 to Nadia Petrova, last year’s runner-up.
Petrova was to play Jankovic in yesterday’s quarter-finals.
No. 4 Dinara Safina fended off a match point in outlasting fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva, 7-6 (1), 0-6, 7-6 (3) in a late match.
No. 8 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, No. 10 Flavia Pennetta of Italy and Yuan Meng of China were among the other winners, while Bethanie Mattek kept rolling.
The 23-year-old Mattek defeated Olga Govortsova of Bulgaria, 7-5, 6-2, to continue a solid showing that began in April. She trailed 5-2 in the first set.
“I was just making a couple mistakes and she was playing well,” Mattek said.
“I got a little more intense and rattled off seven games in a row,” she said.
Mattek has boosted her ranking nearly 100 places since then and can expect to rise higher, helped by her upset of 11th-seeded Nicole Vaidisova earlier this week.
“I’ve been playing really well. It just keeps building every match I play,” she said.
“If I do play up to my potential, I’m expecting myself to win. I’m really confident in my game right now. Two years ago, I couldn’t say that,” she said.
Kuznetsova and 10 other players, including Wimbledon champion Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Lindsay Davenport, withdrew from the US$650,000 tournament.
■ SLOVENIA OPEN
AP, PORTOROZ, Slovenia
Julia Goerges upset second-seeded Katarina Srebotnik for the second time in less than a month, winning 6-4, 6-2 on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the Slovenia Open.
The 19-year-old German, who is ranked 99th on the WTA Tour but reached the quarter-finals at Memphis is March, also upset the 26th-ranked and then 23rd-seeded Slovenian in the first round at Wimbledon.
While it took three sets, including a marathon 16-14 final set at Wimbledon, Goerges needed only an hour and 14 minutes to subdue Srebotnik on Thursday.
Top-seeded Maria Kirlenko won her second consecutive match in straight sets, beating Italy’s Roberta Vinci 6-1, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.
Kirlenko, who needed 62 minutes and fought off all four break points in a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Nika Ozegovic on Tuesday, needed 15 minutes more to subdue Vinci. She converted six of 15 break opportunities and capitalized on Vinci’s five double faults.
Qualifier Elena Bovina also scored another upset, beating Frenchwoman Camille Pin 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (6) to advance to the final eight.
Also reaching the quarter-finals was eighth-seeded Sara Errani of Italy, beating compatriot Mara Santangelo 6-2, 6-4.
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