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condividiBig Monday...
...was Big!
Dramatic comeback victories for Ancic and Murray. Federer and Nadal easily through. Jankovic goes home. Venus and Serena go through. Good victories for Petrova and Dementieva. Alessandro Mastroluca
The stars have survived. Roger Federer easily disposed of Lleyton Hewitt, defeated for the 12th consecutive time in their head to heads, by an impressive 7-6 6-2 6-4. The Aussie, who in these 12 matches has managed only four sets, had a series of chances to take the match to a four or five-setter, but in almost every one of his 8 break points, Federer banged down one of his 21 aces or a winning serve to see off the threat. Roger thus claimed his 63rd consecutive win on the grass, the 39th at Wimbledon. The last defeat was in 2002, at the All England Club, against a then promising youngster, Mario Ancic.
The Croat will be his next opponent, after having escaped from a 3h 50m long battle against the lefty Fernando Verdasco. The Spaniard, almost perfect on serve for the first two sets, went two sets up, but was broken once in the third set (despite losing only 5 points on his serve) and Ancic got his head above the water. The match finished with a dramatic fifth set, and Ancic, suffering a leg injury, benefited from the 14 double faults and 34 errors by Verdasco to clinch on his second match point a 3-6 4-6 6-3 6-4 13-11 win, although his opponent won a point more than him (178 to 177). At the end of the match Verdasco was not so happy and left without shaking hands with the umpire. It's the second time that Ancic, hoping to repeat the feat of Ivanisevic in 2001, has succeeded in winning a match from two sets down (the other was against the Austrian Melzer in a Davis Cup tie in 2006).
If Roger calls, Rafa answers. Nadal avenged his 0-6 1-6 defeat in the final at Chennai and outlasted Mikhail Youzhny, capable of going 2 sets up against the Mallorcan here last year. Today the Russian scraped together only seven games. Nadal, despite having some trouble with his right leg, sealed with a 6-3 6-3 6-1 victory his third quarterfinal in a row at Wimbledon.
Rafa now awaits Andy Murray, author of the other dramatic comeback of the day against Richard "Mr Frailty" Gasquet. The Frenchman played perfectly for the first two sets, making only 6 unforced errors. The Frenchman, with his exquisite volleys and backhands, lost 4 points on his serve in the third set and served for the match. Then something, as often happens, broke inside him and Richard confirmed himself as a perfect exhibition player. With a double fault he concluded a terrible game which enabled Murray to win the third set. The Brit, extraordinarily supported by the crowd, started another match and Gasquet gradually disappeared from the match. He saved a match point but eventually surrendered 5-7 3-6 7-6 6-2 6-4 and sportingly applauded the public at the end of the match.
Great success for Marat Safin who outlasted the second Swiss, Stanislas Wawrinka in four sets. Safin played two good sets before becoming more and more nervous in the third. Wawrinka broke the Russian in the fifth game of the set, to lead for the first time. At 5-4, the Swiss served for the set, but Safin broke back, but still lost the set 7-5. But this was Wawrinka’s swan song. Safin completed a 6-4 6-3 5-7 6-1 win to return to a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time since 2001.
The Russian, who's becoming a serious contender for the title, will face Feliciano Lopez, who outlasted Marcos Baghdatis in five sets. The Cypriot, ranked 10 places above Lopez, has had a troubled season in which he has played only eight tournaments. The handsome Feliciano, having saved three match points, won a place in the last eight for the second time in the last three years thanks to a 5-7 6-2 3-6 7-6 8-6 win.
The most surprising quarterfinal, the only one without seeds, will be played between Rainer Schuettler and Arnaud Clement, in the "veterans derby". They are, in fact, the oldest players left in the draw and are finding here their second youth. The German hasn’t gone so far in a Grand Slam tournament since the Australian Open 2002 (where he lost the final to Agassi). Schuettler surprisingly defeated Janko Tipsarevic 6-4 3-6 6-4 7-6.
Arnaud Clement reached the third Grand Slam quarterfinal of his career by beating Marin Cilic, the youngest player left in the draw, in a clash of generations. After the US Open 2000 and the Australian Open 2001 (when he was losing finalist to Agassi, like his next adversary two years later), Clement confirmed his third berth in the last eight thanks to a convincing 6-3 7-5 6-2 victory.
The female tournament registered a new record. For the first time in the open era the top four seeded players won't be present in the quarterfinals. The last representative of the quartet, Jelena Jankovic, finished her tournament against Tamarine Tanasugarn, who won 6-3 6-2. The Thai, profiting from Jankovic's trouble with her left knee, finished the first set in 36 minutes, broke immediately in the second set and so sealed the success. The recent winner at Rosmalen will face Venus Williams, now the main favourite for the tournament. The defending champion needed an hour and 23 minutes to defeat Aliza Kleybanova. After a quick first set lasting 37 minutes, Venus lost a bit of concentration and dropped several set points before Kleybanova broke back to 5-3. Venus closed anyway 6-3 6-4 to clinch her 9th passage to the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 12 appearances.
The Williams bandwagon rolls on without obstacles on the road to a more than probable "family" final. Serena, in fact, made light work of Bethanie Mattek, brushing aside her fellow American 6-3, 6-3. The 2002 and 2003 champion seemed extremely determined and coasted to victory in less than an hour. And now she awaits Agnieska Radwanska, who upset Svetlana Kuznetzova. The Pole won the first set 6-4 in 43 minutes, but then Kutznetzova angrily hit back, winning the second set 6-1 and breaking to 4-2 in the third. Her match finished here, and Radwanska won 6-4 1-6 7-5 making Ana Ivanovic smile: next week she's still the world no.1.
The conqueror of Ana Ivanovic, Jie Zheng, a doubles specialist who was given a wild card to play the singles, continued her golden run. The great Chinese hope for the Olympic Games defeated her third seed, Agnes Szavay from Hungary 6-3 6-4: she has yet to lose a set. In the quarterfinals she will face Nicole Vaidisova, who came back from a set down to overcome the eighth seed Ana Chakvetadze. The Russian won the first set 6-4, but the young Czech, supported by her boyfriend Radek Stepanek, won a perfect second set tiebreak (7-0) and broke early in the third set to complete a 4-6 7-6 6-3 victory.
The last quarterfinal will be the Russian derby between Nadia Petrova and Elena Dementieva. Petrova, the no.21 seed, claimed a 6-1 6-4 victory against another compatriot, Alla Kudryavtseva. Her strokes were much too powerful and consistent for her younger opponent. So Nadia will play her second quarterfinal at Wimbledon against Dementieva (whom she defeated 6-1 6-1 in their only encounter at SW19). Elena Dementieva came through an easy match against Shahar Peer from Israel: the score, 6-2 6-1, sums up the development of the match.
Alessandro Mastroluca
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