Defending champion Rafael Nadal reached the fourth round at Wimbledon by beating Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 7-6 (8/6), 7-6 (6/5), 6-0 yesterday.
The match started on Friday, but was suspended by rain after the first set.
Both players held serve in the second set, but after Nadal earned a mini-break in the tiebreaker and then held to go up 2-0, the top-seeded Spaniard dominated the final set.
Photo: AFP
The sixth seed Tomas Berdych also moved into the fourth round by beating Alex Bogomolov Jr of the US 6-2, 6-4, 6-3.
Berdych reached the final at the All England Club last year, beating six-time champion Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic before losing to Rafael Nadal.
In the women’s games on Day 6, top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki reached the fourth round at Wimbledon for the third straight year after beating Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3, 6-2.
Photo: EPA
After an even start on Centre Court, Wozniacki broke for a 5-3 lead in the first set before serving out and was never troubled again by the 28th-seeded Australian, winning in 66 minutes.
Maria Sharapova struggled with her game, but rallied to beat Klara Zakopalova 6-2, 6-3.
The fifth-seeded Russian, the only champion in the women’s draw other than the Williams -sisters, had 21 unforced errors and four double-faults in an inconsistent baseline performance in windy conditions on Court 2.
However, after falling behind 3-1 in the second set, Sharapova lifted her game to win five games in a row to finish off the 35th-ranked Czech player.
Zakopalova struggled with her footing, slipping at least four times along the baseline.
Also yesterday, China’s Peng Shuai beat Hungary’s Melinda Czink 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) to set up a clash with Sharapova for a place in the quarter-finals..
Meanwhile, on Friday, three-time Wimbledon runner-up Andy Roddick was eliminated 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/2), 6-4 on Friday by Feliciano Lopez in the third round, the biggest upset of the men’s tournament so far.
The 44th-ranked Lopez served 28 aces and piled up 57 winners to defeat Roddick on Centre Court, the American’s first loss to the Spanish left-hander in eight matches.
In a surprise on the women’s side, second-seeded and last year’s runner-up Vera Zvonareva was knocked out 6-2, 6-3 by 33rd-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria. The Russian converted only one of seven break points and had 18 unforced errors. Pironkova upset Venus Williams here last year en route to the semi-finals.
Williams, a five-time champion, set up a fourth-round rematch against Pironkova by routing Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 6-0, 6-2 in in one hour on Court 1.
In the mixed doubles, the US’ Scott Lipsky and Casey Dellacqua of Australia beat Taiwan’s Chuang Chia-jung and Germany’s Christopher Kas 6-4, 5-7, 6-4.
Play was suspended for the day shortly after 7pm, except on Centre Court, where fourth-seeded Andy Murray defeated Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7/4) under the sliding roof to move into the fourth round in his bid to become the first British men’s champion in 75 years.
Murray served for the match at 5-3 in the fourth set, but couldn’t convert, hitting an errant forehand on the second break point. However, in the tiebreaker, Murray took advantage of errors by the Croatian and ended the match by following up a big serve with a forehand putaway.
In the seventh game of the fourth set, Murray pulled off a trick shot — hopping in the air near mid-court and flicking the ball between his legs for a cross-court winner. He made a similar shot against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga in the final of the Queen’s Club tournament on June 13.
The eighth-seeded Roddick, who lost to Roger Federer in the finals in 2004, 2005 and 2009, served 23 aces, but also had six double-faults.
It’s the third time in four years Roddick has lost in the early rounds — he went out in the second round in 2008 and the fourth last year.
Lopez, who reached the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2005 and 2008, broke Roddick twice and had only seven unforced errors.
The Spaniard had lost to Roddick in all their previous matches, including the Wimbledon tuneup at Queen’s Club two weeks ago.
Williams had 21 winners and only five unforced errors against Martinez Sanchez. It was a big change from her previous match, when Williams was stretched to three sets and three hours by 40-year-old Kimiko Date-Krumm.
Advancing to the round of 16 was fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who defeated No. 25 Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 3-6, 6-2. Azarenka was up 2-1 in the third set when play was suspended by rain. The match resumed after the roof was closed over Centre Court.
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