World No. 1 Roger Federer and British teen Andy Murray advanced to the quarter-finals of the ATP Masters Series event on Thursday, but defending champion and second seed Rafael Nadal was ousted.
Reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Federer fought off a challenge to beat Russia's Dmitry Tursunov 6-3, 5-7, 6-0 while Murray downed Spain's Carlos Moya 6-2, 6-4.
Spaniard Nadal lost to 14th-ranked Czech Tomas Berdych 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 in the biggest upset of the third round at the US$2.5 million event, a warm-up for the US Open, the year's final Grand Slam tournament.
Federer dropped a set to Tursunov, a finalist at Los Angeles two weeks ago, but dominated the third set to make it clear he remains the man to beat.
"I thought the match was a good standard," Federer said. "I had my opportunities to win the first set more easily. He hung in there. That was a sign of confidence. I stayed tough in the third set and won it."
The Swiss star said his rhythm was thrown off when he tried to disrupt Tursunov in the second set.
"I broke my own rhythm doing that," Federer said. "I have to be a little more focused on what I'm doing."
Federer advanced to a Friday matchup with Belgian Xavier Malisse, who eliminated Sweden's Thomas Johansson, 7-6 (9/7), 6-3.
By eliminating French Open champion and Wimbledon runner-up Nadal, 20-year-old Berdych booked a date with Frenchman Richard Gasquet, who defeated Spain's Fernando Verdasco 6-0, 4-6, 6-2.
"I was playing one of my best matches," Berdych said. "I was almost perfect. I was putting pressure on Nadal."
Murray, in his second week working with new coach Brad Gilbert, dominated his Spanish foe but struggled when serving for the match before claiming the second set.
"It was one of those things," Murray said. "I've never had a problem with it before. It must just be Toronto."
Murray said tactics and strategy have been the main areas where Gilbert has helped him improve, saying there was too little time to work on other areas of his game before the US Open, which begins later this month.
"The game plans have been really good and I've played well," Murray said. "I thought I took the game too him pretty well and won 90 percent of the points when I was up there. I used my forehand pretty well."
Murray advanced to a quarter-final against Finland's Jarkko Nieminen, who outlasted Italy's Davide Sanguinetti 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (10/8).
Chile's Fernando Gonzalez pulled the day's other shocker, defeating fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-4, 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/3).
He will face Jose Acasuso in an all South American quarter-final after the Argentine player eliminated France's Julien Benneteau 6-3, 7-6 (7/4).
Serena Williams avenged her Australian Open loss to Daniela Hantuchova on Thursday with a 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 victory over the seventh-seeded Slovakian to reach the quarter-finals of a WTA hardcourt tournament.
While Williams had to rally to ease the sting of that defeat in Melbourne, top-seeded Russian Maria Sharapova rolled into the quarters to set up her own grudge match against the woman who ousted her from the French Open -- fifth-seeded compatriot Dinara Safina.
Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam champion, who was dethroned by Hantuchova in the third round in Australia, spent the next six months on the sidelines nursing a nagging knee injury.
She reached the semi-finals in her comeback tournament in Cincinnati three weeks ago, but looked headed for an earlier exit in an error-strewn first set against Hantuchova.
"That was definitely a nightmare," Williams said. "But I never felt that I was out of it. I just felt like I was making some errors. I just thought, `Serena, you've got to play better.'"
Williams didn't win a game until she held serve in the sixth game, in which she also fell heavily as she lunged for a forehand.
After Hantuchova wrapped up the set -- when a ball off the netcord fell her way -- Williams called for the trainer and had her left ankle taped in an injury timeout.
Hantuchova wasn't convinced Williams was hurting, particularly since she thought the American's movement improved as the match progressed.
"I don't think so, no," Hantuchova said. "But that's her call."
Williams called that remark childish.
"I obviously fell," she said. "I obviously was injured ... It was throbbing and it stung, but I just kept moving."
Williams dropped her serve to open the second set, but Hantuchova missed out on a chance to consolidate her advantage when she failed to convert two game points and was broken in the next.
Williams broke her again on her way to evening the match.
In the third, neither player faced a break point until the seventh game, when Williams converted her third opportunity when Hantuchova sailed a backhand long.
Williams fought off a break point in the next game, then broke again to take the match when Hantuchova sent a forehand over the line.
"I always had the chances to finish the point and maybe aimed it too much at the lines," Hantuchova said. "I have to give her the credit for the way she was serving, though. She hit some big serves on important points."
Hantuchova said Williams was much improved since their meeting in January.
"She's moving much better and serving really, really well," she said. "She just needs a few matches to be 100 percent back."
In the quarter-finals, Williams will meet Meghann Shaugnessy, a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual.
Sharapova swept into the last eight with a with a 6-1, 6-2 win over overmatched Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli.
Safina advanced with a 6-2, 7-6 (7/2) win over American Laura Granville.
Third-seeded Zheng Jie beat Kaia Kanepi of Estonia 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday to advance to the quarter-finals of the Stockholm Open.
Also, Eva Birnerova of the Czech Republic beat doubles partner Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-3; Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark edged Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 7-5, 7-5; and fourth-seeded Sofia Arvidsson outlasted fellow Swede Johanna Larsson 6-2, 1-6, 6-4.
Anastasia Myskina, a finalist last year and the tournament's top-seeded player, advanced to the quarter-finals on Wednesday.
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