Third-seeded Roger Federer advanced to the quarter-finals of the Rogers Cup with a 7-6 (2), 6-3 victory over Michael Llodra of France on Thursday, while No. 7 seed Tomas Berdych edged Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-4.
Top-seeded Rafael Nadal of Spain, second-seeded Novak Djokovic of Serbia and fourth-seeded Andy Murray of Britain also posted victories to move on to the final eight.
Llodra picked up a souvenir after shaking hands with the two-time champion, asking Federer for his pink tennis shirt.
PHOTO: REUTERS
“Roger is a legend,” Llodra said. “It’s a good present for my kids.”
In the second set, Llodra tried to put off Federer with a rare underhand serve.
“It’s the first time I got an underarm serve,” Federer said with a laugh. “The third time somebody asked me for the shirt.”
Llodra put spin on it, causing the ball to go sideways when it hit the court. Federer seemed ready to swat a forehand winner, but instead barely got his racket on the ball, sending it well wide.
“I just wanted to make something special,” Llodra said.
Federer appeared comfortable throughout the match. He said he enjoyed the change of pace.
“This is how [the game] used to be played,” Federer said. “You rather hit a volley than a passing shot. And he’s a good volleyer, a good athlete at the net and that’s why you want to try to move forward early on in the point.”
The top two seeds posted straight-set victories as Djokovic downed Victor Hanescu of Romania 6-3, 6-4, while Nadal beat South African qualifier Kevin Anderson 6-2, 7-6 (6).
Murray held off Gael Monfils of France 6-2, 0-6, 6-3 to set up a quarter-final with David Nalbandian, who stretched his winning streak to 11 matches with a 4-6, 6-4, 6-1 victory over fifth-seeded Robin Soderling of Sweden.
Nalbandian withstood 14 aces and served eight double-faults. He won his 11th career title in Washington last weekend.
Jeremy Chardy of France scored an upset with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over sixth-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko and Germany’s Phillipp Kohlschreiber defeated Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan 6-7 (5), 7-5, 6-0.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier