Nadal overcomes Baghdatis to set up Murray clash

World number two Rafael Nadal recovered from an unsteady start to overpower Marcos Baghdatis 6-4 6-4 in the Madrid Masters on Wednesday and set up a mouth-watering last-16 clash against Andy Murray.Nadal, playing his first competitive match since losing to fellow Spaniard David Ferrer in the U.S. Open fourth round on September 4, struggled to find his rhythm in the opening games, but eventually settled on the ultra-fast hard court.

The Spaniard got the measure of a fading Baghdatis in the second set, making the crucial break in the ninth game to claim victory at the scene of his triumph in 2005.

“I made some mistakes at the start and my serve was average, but I’m not unhappy,” Nadal told a news conference.

“The match against Murray is going to be very tough and I’m sure if he hadn’t injured his wrist in Hamburg earlier this year we would be talking of a player who would be in the top two, three, five or six in the world.”

Third seed Novak Djokovic had to shake off a determined challenge from unseeded Fernando Verdasco to win 6-7 6-3 6-3.

The 20-year-old, who lies behind Nadal and Roger Federer in the rankings, will face Juan Carlos Ferrero in the last 16 after the Spaniard got the better of compatriot Carlos Moya 7-6 6-4 in a duel between former world number ones.

Djokovic did his best to garner support from the partisan crowd at the Madrid Arena by donning a Real Madrid shirt as he walked on court to face Verdasco. 

But the Serb, who won in Vienna at the weekend and is already assured of a place in the season-ending Masters Cup, found himself on the back foot against the young Spaniard and lost the first set on a tiebreak.

He fought back to take the second 6-3 and gained the edge with a break in the eighth game of the third to clinch victory in just over two and a half hours.

SEEDS TUMBLE

Eight seeds including Masters Cup hopefuls Tommy Robredo, James Blake, David Ferrer, Ivan Ljubicic and Richard Gasquet tumbled out of the tournament on Wednesday, denting their chances of making the prestige event in Shanghai.

Robredo fell victim to Argentine Juan Martin del Potro who defeated the eighth seed 6-7 6-4 6-3 in a marathon late match that did not finish until well after 1am local time.

Eariler, wildcard Feliciano Lopez delivered a blow to seventh seed Ferrer’s hopes of qualifying with an unexpected 7-6 7-5 win on centre court, while Mikhail Youzhny was brushed aside by Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer.

Sixth seed Blake lost to Mario Ancic 6-3 6-4 and Czech Thomas Berdych exited at the hands of Argentine David Nalbandian who came from a set down to claim a 4-6 6-4 7-6 win over the ninth seed.

Gasquet lost to Paul-Henri Mathieu in straight sets in an all-French second round contest and Ljubicic, who was beaten by Nadal in the 2005 Madrid final, was edged out by Austria’s Stefan Koubek 6-3 6-7 7-5.

Last year’s losing finalist Fernando Gonzalez, seeded fifth, had to dig deep to record a 7-6 7-5 win over the combative Nicolas Almagro.

Argentine Guillermo Canas also had to battle hard to snatch a 6-3 3-6 7-5 win over compatriot Agustin Calleri and earn a third-round match against Federer.

Sania Mirza, Bopanna join Hopman Cup

THE surprise success enjoyed by India’s Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna in the last Hopman Cup has made them the fourth team confirmed for this year’s eight-team tournament in Perth.

Mirza and Bopanna qualified for the annual mixed teams tennis tournament last year by winning the inaugural Asian Hopman Cup, then went on to topple both Croatia and the Czech Republic before a loss to Spain prevented them reaching the final.

Tournament director Paul McNamee said today he was inviting the Indians directly into the field for the 20th Hopman Cup starting on December 29, joining Serbia, the Czech Republic and France.

“It’s just reward for their challenge last year and for Sania’s considerable progress this year,” said McNamee.

“Sania Mirza is a bona fide superstar in India and at only 19 years of age is on target to reach her goal of being the first Indian woman in the top 20.”

A strong US summer campaign which included wins over Tatiana Golovin, Martina Hingis, Dinara Safina, Shahar Peer and Patty Schneider has Mirza sitting at No.27 in the world rankings.

Bopanna has had a successful year on the Challenger circuit winning a singles tournament in Dublin and five doubles titles to give him an ATP doubles ranking of 86.

Bopanna’s doubles prowess helped ensure he and Mirza were unbeaten in doubles at the last Hopman Cup.

India confirms Hopman Cup date

INDIA, which enjoyed surprising success in the Hopman Cup last year, has been confirmed as the fourth team for the eight-team tournament in Perth this year.

Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna qualified for the annual mixed teams tennis tournament last year by winning the inaugural Asian Hopman Cup. The pair then toppled both Croatia and the Czech Republic before a loss to Spain prevented them reaching the final.

Tournament director Paul McNamee said today that he had invited India directly into the field for the 20th Hopman Cup, starting on December 29, joining Serbia, the Czech Republic and France.

“It’s just reward for their challenge last year and for Sania’s considerable progress this year,” McNamee said.

“Sania Mirza is a bona fide superstar in India and at only 19 years of age is on target to reach her goal of being the first Indian woman in the top 20.”

A strong US hardcourt campaign, which included wins over Tatiana Golovin, Martina Hingis, Dinara Safina, Shahar Peer and Patty Schneider, has Mirza sitting at No.27 in the world rankings.

Bopanna has enjoyed a successful year on the Challenger circuit, winning a singles tournament in Dublin. He has also won five doubles titles to claim an ATP doubles ranking of No.86.

Bopanna’s doubles prowess ensured that he and Mirza were unbeaten in doubles at the 2006 Hopman Cup.

Andy Murray shakes off sluggish start to find his best game

In the next four months, each move made by Andy Murray and the Argentinians bursting for the opportunity to lay Great Britain’s Davis Cup hopes to waste in Buenos Aires in February will be scrutinised and its significance weighed - no more so than in the second round of the Mutua Madrileña Masters tonight, when Murray takes on Juan Ignacio Chela, for which there is a meaty enmity, Davis Cup tie in the offing or not.

If there was a popularity poll in men’s tennis, Chela’s figures would be akin to those of the Liberal Democrats. He is one of those antagonistic fellows everyone takes a shine to beating and when Murray put him to the sword in the third round of this year’s Australian Open for the loss of nine games, there was an overwhelming sense of satisfaction.

It was much the same at the Pabellón de Cristal yesterday with Murray’s compelling 6-4, 6-1 victory over Radek Stepanek, of the Czech Republic, completed on the heels of those by Juan Mónaco and Juan MartÍn del Potro, two of the half-dozen from Argentina at the apex of the world order (Del Potro is the lowest ranked at No 53). Chela, at No 16, is a spot ahead of Murray in the rankings, although the British No 1’s two recent successes over him have been shudderingly efficient and his only defeat came when he felt crushed by the weight of expectation as an 18-year-old in Melbourne in 2006.

Yesterday, once Murray shook off the cobwebs of the opening 15 minutes, he put Stepanek to the sword in the manner of many of his performances before his summer was ruined by the wrist injury he suffered at the Hamburg Masters tournament in mid-May. He won eight of the last nine games and sacrificed only three points against serve in the second set – a far cry from a sluggish start, when he did not land a first serve until his eighth attempt.

Seeing Murray play as he did was to recall heady days in Melbourne, California and Florida when everything in his garden was blooming. This was a vintage display of every shot in his library against a player who can make the best appear average and take the average apart. It was symptomatic of how mixed up Stepanek became that in the game when he was broken to lose the first set his mind was seized by one thing, to come in behind every first serve, which left him wide open to the variety of means by which Murray can turn defence into attack.

Not only did Murray think this one of his best performances of the year, but “since I’ve been on the tour”, which is saying something. “I didn’t have a single deuce against my serve, I was holding pretty comfortably and getting into his service games,” he said. “If I keep playing like that I’ll have chances to win every match I play.”

To achieve that against Chela this evening will take some doing, for the 28-year-old is having a splendid autumn, having reached the quarter-finals of the US Open and extended Novak Djokovic to a third-set tie-break in Vienna last week before the world No 3 from Serbia prevailed. Chela is another player who appears to be doing nothing much but keeping the ball in play, while systematically wearing opponents to a frazzle.

But Murray is ready – and ferociously determined. He knew that it would take time to put all the pieces together – “anyone who thinks you can pick up playing where you have left off after the kind of injury I had doesn’t know the game,” he said. “It takes time to get used to swinging really hard and it’s only been ten or 11 matches since I’ve been back, so this is really good.”

Just to see him enjoying his tennis is a boon. He was relaxed enough to talk the press through the oddities of his hotel room here, which is so dark he had difficulty locating his shoes when he woke from a predinner nap.

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Sania, Maria crash out of Kremlin Cup

Sania Mirza was today sent home from the WTA Kremlin Open after her doubles quarter-final defeat at the hands of top seed Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Liezel Huber of the USA here.

Sania, partnering Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, went down 6-3, 5-7, 10-7 in the $ 2,340,000 Tier I tournament. The Indian had already crashed out of the singles event, losing her first-round match to Argentine Gisela Dulko yesterday.

Maria Sharapova lost to teenager Victoria Azarenka 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 in the second round. Sharapova was playing in Moscow for only the third time and has never made it past the second round. The loss was her first match in six weeks since her defeat in the third round of the US Open. The second-seed Russian had been sidelined because of a lingering shoulder injury.

She went ahead 5-3 and 40/0 in the first set but lost 10 consecutive points and allowed Azarenka to force a tie-breaker. “Maybe I was too self-assured at 5-3. But it all went downhill after,” Sharapova said yesterday.

The 18-year-old Belarussian saved three more set points in the tie-breaker before taking the set. Azarenka then broke the two-time Grand Slam champion twice in the second set for her first win over the fourth-ranked player.

“I tried to stay concentrated and believed I could win the match,” said Azarenka, ranked 32nd, who was a runner-up in her first WTA Tour final in Tashkent last weekend.

Vera Zvonareva of Russia beat sixth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the first round.

“She took the chances she got,” Mauresmo said. “She began pretty bad and I was doing well, but then it went the other way.”
In the second round, top-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova was the only seeded women to win Wednesday after she rallied to beat Gisela Dulko of Argentina 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Vera Dushevina upset Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli 2-6, 6-0, 6-4, and Russia’s Elena Dementieva defeated seventh-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4. Dementieva will face Azarenka in the quarter-finals.

In the men’s event, second-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and third-seeded Andy Murray of Britain both advance to the second round. Youzhny beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-3, 6-2, and Murray defeated Evgeny Korolev Vera Dushevina upset Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli 2-6, 6-0, 6-4, and Russia’s Elena Dementieva defeated seventh-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-3, 6-4. Dementieva will face Azarenka in the quarter-finals.

In the men’s event, second-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia and third-seeded Andy Murray of Britain both advanced to the second round. Youzhny beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-3, 6-2, and Murray defeated Evgeny Korolev of Russia 6-2, 6-4. Fourth-seeded Paul-Henri Mathieu went through to the quarter-finals by defeating Russian qualifier Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 6-4.

Both Kuznetsova and Dulko struggled to hold serve. Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open champion, converted only six of 16 game points for the win.

“It seems to me that I was playing against myself, surface and balls today, not against her,” said Kuznetsova, who had four aces and 55 unforced errors.

“I played bad but nevertheless won the match.”