Grand Slam-winning trio Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer and Stanislas Wawrinka all looked in sublime form as they progressed to the third round of the Monte Carlo Masters with straight-set victories on Wednesday.
Top seed Nadal, champion at eight of the past nine editions, spent 72 minutes in beating Russian qualifier Teimuraz Gabashvili, who held a shock 3-1 lead early on, 6-4, 6-1.
Federer, seeded fourth at a Masters event that he has never won, looked in top shape as he romped to a 6-1, 6-2 thrashing of talented Czech veteran Radek Stepanek in 52 minutes.
However, Wawrinka, the third-seeded Australian Open winner, spent even less time on court, with his 45-minute match tying that of holder Novak Djokovic’s opening win the day before as the Swiss hammered Marin Cilic 6-0, 6-2.
Wawrinka won the first set in just 18 minutes, then “slowed” the pace.
Nadal rallied after trailing early on against Gabashvili and never looked like suffering what would only have been his third-ever defeat at the event.
The top seed — who moved to within one win of bringing up a half-century of victories — won six games in a row on his way to claiming the opening set and reaching 4-0 in the second.
A break by his opponent for 4-1 only delayed the inevitable, with Nadal getting the break straight back for 5-1 before taking the match on his first match point a game later.
Nadal is to play Andreas Seppi in the third round after the Italian defeated Pablo Andujar 7-6 (7/5), 5-7, 6-4.
Federer was pleased with his level of play against his 35-year-old opponent, who has posed problems for several of the top-10 players this season.
“I was able to get a lot of returns back into play,” the 17-time Grand Slam winner said. “It was clearly a good match to start my clay-court campaign.”
The Swiss — who revealed that were his wife to give birth to their third child close to the French Open, which gets underway in five weeks’ time, he would give the Grand Slam event a miss — was to play Stepanek’s compatriot Lukas Rosol yesterday.
Canadian eighth seed Milos Raonic could prove to be a dark horse as he equaled his best showing in the tournament with a 6-7 (4/7), 6-2, 6-1 defeat of Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun.
‘SU-PENKO’: Hsieh and Ostapenko face a rematch against their Australian Open final opponents, the same duo Hsieh played in last year’s Wimbledon semi-finals Taiwanese women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei and Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko on Wednesday survived a near upset to the unseeded duo of Sorana Cirstea of Romania and Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya, setting up a semi-final showdown against last year’s winners. Despite losing a hard-fought opening set 7-6 (7/4) on a tiebreak, the fourth seeds turned up the heat, losing just five games in the final two sets to handily put down Cirstea and Kalinskaya 6-3, 6-2. Nicknamed “Su-Penko,” the pair are next to face top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in a reversal of last
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei (謝淑薇) and her Latvian partner Jelena Ostapenko finished runners-up in the Wimbledon women's doubles final yesterday, losing 6-3, 2-6, 4-6. The three-set match against Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens of Belgium lasted two hours and 23 minutes. The loss denied 39-year-old Hsieh a chance to claim her 10th Grand Slam title. Although the Taiwanese-Latvian duo trailed 1-3 in the opening set, they rallied with two service breaks to take it 6-3. In the second set, Mertens and Kudermetova raced to a 5-1 lead and wrapped it up 6-2 to even the match. In the final set, Hsieh and
Taiwanese tennis veteran Hsieh Su-wei and her Latvian partner, Jelena Ostapenko, advanced to the Wimbledon women’s doubles final on Friday, defeating top seeds Katerina Siniakova of the Czech Republic and Taylor Townsend of the US in straight sets. The fourth-seeded duo bounced back quickly after losing their opening service game, capitalizing on frequent unforced errors by their opponents to take the first set 7-5. Maintaining their momentum in the second set, Hsieh and Ostapenko broke serve early and held their lead to close out the match 6-4. They are set to face the eighth-seeded pair of Veronika Kudermetova of Russia and Elise Mertens
Outside Anfield, the red sea of tributes to Diogo Jota and his brother, Andre Silva, has continued to grow this week, along with questions over whether Liverpool could play at Preston today, their first game since the brothers’ tragic loss. Inside Anfield, and specifically a grieving Liverpool dressing room, there was no major debate over the pre-season friendly. The English Premier League champions intend to honor their teammate in the best way they know how. It would be only 10 days since the deaths of Jota and Silva when Liverpool appear at Deepdale Stadium for what is certain to be a hugely
RSS