Top-seeded Novak Djokovic avoided a first-match upset this time, easily beating Paul-Henri Mathieu of France 6-1, 6-2 yesterday at the Sydney International.
Last week, Djokovic lost in the first round of the Brisbane International. Then, he said he was struggling to find his rhythm with a new racket and wasn’t overly concerned about the loss.
Yesterday, he backed up that claim with a strong display against Mathieu in searing heat at the Olympic Park Tennis Centre.
PHOTO: AP
Top-seeded Serena Williams had the toughest of times in her women’s quarter-final yesterday, saving two match points in the 12th game of the final set before beating Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (3).
Williams had to save four match points in her first-round match against Samantha Stosur of Australia, and had a straight-sets win in the second round before dueling with Wozniacki for 2 hours, 40 minutes at Ken Rosewall Arena.
While the top-seeded Djokovic, who received a first-round bye, made it through, No. 2-seeded Gilles Simon was a second-round casualty, beaten 6-4, 6-4 by French compatriot Richard Gasquet.
PHOTO: AFP
Another Frenchman, third-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga downed Italy’s Simone Bolelli of Italy 6-4, 6-1, though last year’s Australian Open finalist was troubled by a back complaint that twice required treatment.
Argentina’s David Nalbandian also swept into the quarter-finals with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Frenchman Michael Llodra.
Jeremy Chardy was the third Frenchman into the last eight, upsetting fifth-seeded Igor Andreev of Russia 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 while seventh-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo was beaten 6-2, 6-1 by Mario Ancic.
PHOTO: AFP
Ancic will be the next opponent for his good friend Djokovic, with the top seed acknowledging the danger posed by the big-serving Croat.
Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt and Finland’s Jarkko Nieminen also won yesterday to reach the quarter-finals.
Second-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia joined Williams in the semi-finals with a 6-3, 6-4 win over France’s Alize Cornet. Cornet saved four match points in the final game before Safina, who was serving, closed the match out.
Her next opponent is Ai Sugiyama of Japan. Sugiyama made it to the semi-finals without taking to the court, receiving a walkover when former US Open champion and fifth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia withdrew with an abdominal strain.
Third-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia beat No. 6 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 in another quarter-final and will face Williams in the semis.
■HEINEKEN OPEN
AFP, AUCKLAND, New Zealand
The top seeds in the Heineken Open men’s tournament had to overcome off-season rust to secure their quarter-final spots after three-set battles yesterday.
Top seed Juan Martin Del Potro struggled in the first set against the powerful hitting Latvian Ernests Gulbis before winning 4-6, 6-4, 6-1.
The world No. 9 from Argentina clicked into rhythm in the second set after breaking Gulbis at 4-4, forcing his fellow 20-year-old to make costly errors.
“It was a good match for my first time of the year,” Del Potro said. “He is a very good player but I think he got tired in the third set.”
In the quarter-finals, Del Potro faces Serb Viktor Troicki, who beat Argentinian eighth seed Juan Monaco 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Fourth-seeded Spaniard Nicolas Almagro looked short of match practice, after he and the other three top seeds were given byes into the second round.
Almagro lost the first set against Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun in a tie break before winning the next two 6-3, 6-2.
“It was a tough match to start the year,” he said. “I think I served well and I was hitting well on my forehand. I had a little bit of a problem on a backhand but as the match went on it got better.”
The world No. 18 will play sixth-seeded American Sam Querrey, who overcame big-serving Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
“I thought I served really well and played well on the break points but I didn’t volley that well and got a little bit frustrated,” Querrey said.
Second-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer also dropped the first set against Frenchman Marc Gicquel before going on to win 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-4.
Ferrer, who won the tournament in 2007, described the match as “really tough.”
“My first match of the year was really tough for me. He played really well,” Ferrer said. “He served very well and played well in the third set. He had some chances but didn’t take them and I was able to take my chance,” he said.
Third-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden also needed three sets to beat American qualifier Bobby Reynolds 6-3, 4-6, 6-2.
Champion Philipp Kohlschreiber fought back from a third-set break of serve to beat Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.
The pair, who met in last year’s final, traded the first two sets before former world number one Ferrero broke the German in the seventh game of the decider and an upset seemed on the cards.
The 25-year-old fifth seed, however, broke straight back and while he wasted a three-point lead in the tie-breaker managed to seal a quarter-final match against second seed David Ferrer.
■KOOYONG CLASSIC
AP, MELBOURNE
Roger Federer needed only 57 minutes for a 6-2, 6-3 win over Carlos Moya yesterday to begin his final tuneup tournament for the Australian Open.
Federer, bidding to equal Pete Sampras’ record 14 Grand Slam singles titles, was off target with some forehands initially but quickly found his rhythm in the breezy conditions.
The 27-year-old Swiss star broke Moya in the eighth game of the second set and converted on his first match point in the next game, setting it up with an overhead winner.
“I was a bit rusty in the beginning but it was a good match overall,” he said. “I played OK.
“I was just feeling out ... trying a few things here and there, it was just a matter of getting used to the conditions, getting my footwork right.”
Federer said he used the eight-man exhibition tournament at the former home of the Australian Open to get a gradual buildup for the season’s first major, starting on Monday in Melbourne.
And he was not upset about top-ranked Rafael Nadal and No. 4 Andy Murray being in town but not playing at the exhibition tournament.
He said he lost the final here to three-time winner Andy Roddick in 2007 then easily beat the American in the Australian Open semi-finals less than two weeks later. After winning the 2005 title at Kooyong, he was upset by Marat Safin in the Australian Open semis.
Federer said he was underprepared after the off season when he started this year with a loss at an exhibition in Abu Dhabi to Murray, who also beat Nadal in the tournament featuring six of the top 10 men.
“I’d rather not play them,” he said. “You might not see the real guys playing each other, they might be trying to hide something away.”
“That’s why Abu Dhabi was tough for me. It was an unusual first match of the season for me and not very comfortable,” he said.
He also lost to Murray in the semi-finals last week at the Qatar Open, where the Scottish player defended his title.
Moya was a less difficult mark. The 32-year-old Spaniard held the No. 1 ranking in 1999 and won his only major at the French Open in 1998, the year before Federer played his first Grand Slam event.
His next rival will be third-seeded Fernando Verdasco, who beat Marin Cilic of Croatia 6-2, 7-5.
In the opening match, Stanislas Wawrinka, who combined with Federer to win the Olympic doubles gold medal for Switzerland at Beijing in August, had a 6-2, 6-2 win over Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.
Wawrinka will next meet second-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who beat Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 6-3.
Federer had to withdraw from the Kooyong tournament last year with an illness that had bothered him for months and sapped his confidence ahead of the Australian Open.
After a slower than usual start to the season, Federer’s five-year domination at Wimbledon was snapped in a classic five-set final loss to Nadal. He later surrendered the No. 1-ranking he’d held for 237 consecutive weeks to the Spaniard.
But he finished off by winning the US Open for the fifth straight year to lift his career tally to 13 majors, one short of the record Sampras set in a career than spanned 1988 through 2002.
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