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Srichaphan runs into hot Roddick

Ai Sugiyama returns a serve from Karolina during the third round of the Rogers Cup at Uniprix Stadium in Montreal, Thursday. PHOTO: AFP

Defending champion Andy Roddick overwhelmed 15th-seeded Paradorn Srichaphan 6-2, 6-3 in 53 minutes Thursday reach the quarterfinals of the Cincinnati Masters.

Eleventh-seeded Andre Agassi took just seven minutes longer to beat No.17 Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-3. Among the other third-round winners were three other former No.1s -- Marat Safin, Lleyton Hewitt and Carlos Moya.

Roddick hit 12 aces against Paradorn, who never had a break chance against the second-seeded American.

"I don't think he had a good day," Roddick said. "He didn't show what a good player he really is. He definitely had one of those off-days."

Roddick has won 24 of his past 26 matches, losing only to top-ranked Roger Federer at Wimbledon and last week at Toronto.

Fourth-seeded Moya withstood 23 aces from Wayne Arthurs to win 7-6 (5), 4-6, 7-6 (5). He'll play Agassi on Friday.

Moya, who beat Hewitt in the 2002 final, needed five match points to finally put away Arthurs in his third successive match to go three sets.

Paradorn Srichaphan returns to Andy Roddick during the Masters Cincinnati in Mason, Ohio, Thursday. PHOTO: AP

"I'm happy, not with the way I'm playing, but the way I'm surviving," he said.

He wasted two match points in regulation and two more in the tiebreaker before Arthurs pushed a backhand wide to give Moya the win. He said Arthurs never let him establish a rhythm to his game.

"Mentally, you have to be ready for these kind of guys," Moya said. "I was at the beginning, then things went a little bit complicated."

Tenth-seeded Hewitt beat No. 5 Tim Henman 6-1, 6-4 in 63 minutes and improved his record against the Brit to 8-0.

Hewitt now faces 14th-seeded Safin, who outlasted Ivo Karlovic of Croatia, 7-6 (4), 6-7 (3), 6-4.

"He serves really well, so you have to be really focused and wait for opportunities," Safin said. "Just one, two points makes a big difference in that match. So it was try to stay focused, try to hold my serve, and hang in there and wait."

Tommy Haas beat Robin Soderling 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 and will face Roddick on Friday.

Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova was eliminated from the Rogers Cup on Thursday, losing 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 to Vera Zvonareva.

Sharapova was outworked in the duel between baseline hitters, losing for the second time in two tournaments to a fellow Russian since her Wimbledon triumph.

"It's disappointing but no hard feelings," said Sharapova, the sixth seed. "I know you can't win everything and you're going to lose sometimes. I'll go home and train now and get ready for the US Open."

The 10th-seeded Zvonareva advanced to Friday's quarterfinals to face another teenaged sensation, 16-year-old Tatiana Golovin of France. The Moscow-born Golovin, trained at the same Florida tennis academy as Sharapova, downed unseeded Gisela Dulko of Argentina 6-7 (0-7), 6-3, 6-4.

In other matches, former champions Amelie Mauresmo and Jennifer Capriati advanced to the quarterfinals.

Mauresmo, who beat Capriati in the 2002 final, overcame 14th-seeded Elena Bovina of Russia 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to reached the quarterfinal round for the third straight year.

The second-seeded Mauresmo will face 12th-seeded Karolina Sprem of Croatia, who beat No. 7 Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-3, 6-4.

Capriati, the No. 5 see who won the tournament in 1991 as a 15-year-old, beat Mary Pierce 6-2, 6-4 in a match between former Australian and French Open champions.

With the first set tied at 2-all, Capriati won five straight games. She served for the match at 5-3 in the second and was broken, but broke Pierce to win the third-round match.

French Open champion Anastasia Myskina beat No. 15 Chanda Rubin 6-4, 6-0, and will face No. 13 Magdalena Maleeva, who beat No. 9 Paola Suarez of Argentina 6-4, 6-3. Likhovtseva upset 11th-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-2, 6-3.

Favorite and defending champion Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi of Israel retired with a leg injury during her second-round match against Sandra Kleinova in the Nordic Light Open on Thursday.

Kleinova won the first set 6-0 when Smashnova-Pistolesi quit with right hamstring tendinitis on Olympic Stadium's center court.

Third-seeded Alicia Molik of Australia beat Silvija Talaja of Croatia 6-3, 6-1 and set up a quarterfinal against No. 6 Denisa Chladkova of the Czech Republic.

Also, Tatiana Perebiynis of Ukraine topped Patricia Wartusch of Austria 6-0, 6-4 to play Maria Elena Camerin of Italy in the last eight, and France's Severine Beltrame rallied from a 4-1 deficit in the third set to oust Barbara Schett of Austria 3-6, 6-3, 7-5. In the quarters, Beltrame will face second-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy.

Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia downed Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 6-2, 7-5 and will play Kleinova for a place in the semifinals.

Martina Navratilova, preparing for her Olympic debut in Athens, and Elena Tatarkova lost their first-round doubles to Italians Camerin and Flavia Pennetta 6-3, 7-5.

"I'm disappointed for the tournament and for Elena's sake," said Navratilova.

In Athens, Navratilova will play doubles with Lisa Raymond.
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