World No. 1s Roger Federer and Amelie Mauresmo advanced with ease on Monday at the US$6.9 million NASDAQ-100 Open while the UK's Tim Henman suffered a most baffling loss.
Swiss star Federer crushed Germany's Tommy Haas 6-1, 6-3 in a third-round match while France's Mauresmo, who, like Federer, won an Australian Open title in January, eliminated Serbian Ana Ivanovic 7-5, 6-2 to reach the quarter-finals.
"I just played a real solid match. I started off really well, didn't miss much," Federer said.
PHOTO: AFP
"I didn't give him much chance to get in the match, didn't give him too many balls to hit," he said.
Henman fell to German qualifier Simon Greul 0-6, 6-1, 7-5 in their third-round match.
Henman dominated the first set, but was overpowered in the second and sent packing in the third.
PHOTO: AFP
"No doubt the most bizarre I've ever played," Henman said.
"I'm just shocked to play the first set as I did and him to play that badly. His level had gone from non-existent to playing some pretty good stuff in the space of a game. It certainly doesn't sit well with me," he said.
Haas pushed Federer to a fifth set during the Swiss star's Melbourne title run, but was overpowered by Federer, who was to have a fourth-round match yesterday with Russian Dmitry Tursunov, who beat compatriot Igor Andreev 6-3, 1-6, 6-4.
PHOTO: AFP
Federer fired 30 winners against 18 unforced errors to beat Haas for the fifth time in a row, capturing a record 20th consecutive ATP Masters Series triumph.
The US' fourth-seeded Andy Roddick moved on to the round of 16 with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Spain's Fernando Verdasco.
Roddick will face Greul, who was a break down in the third set before dispatching Henman.
"At the beginning I was a little bit nervous. Didn't play that good," said Greul, who won just five points in the first set.
"But then in the second set I got in the game, played some good balls and got a little bit confident," he said.
Henman had eliminated Russian star Marat Safin and Australian Lleyton Hewitt.
"The work that I did to get through those two matches, to lose this is pretty tough to swallow," Henman said.
American James Blake defeated Finland's Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, to book a date with Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela, who ousted Belgian Kristof Vliegen 6-3, 7-6 (7/3).
Mauresmo will next face Russian fifth seed Nadia Petrova, who eliminated Greek qualifier Eleni Daniilidou 6-2, 6-0.
Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced in a walkover when Swiss seventh seed Patty Schnyder dropped out with a right ankle injury. The 2004 US Open champion will next face Japan's Ai Sugiyama, who ousted Swede Sofia Arvidsson 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-2.
Fourth seed Maria Sharapova beat Russian compatriot Maria Kirilenko 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 and will face another Russian, Anastasia Myskina, who ousted Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-2.
China's Zheng Jie eliminated American Jill Craybas, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, to book a quarter-final date with France's Tatiana Golovin, who ripped Russian sixth seed Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-1.
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