RAFAEL Nadal and defending champion Novak Djokovic eased into the last eight of the Toronto Masters, while a racket-smashing Andy Roddick suffered a shock upset.
Djokovic was playing Andy Murray today for a place in the semi-finals.
Frenchman
Gilles Simon, who a day earlier sent world No 1 Roger Federer tumbling out of the tournament, returned to the court and moved imperiously into the quarter-finals with a tidy 6-3, 6-4 win over Argentine Jose Acasuso. However, No 6 seed Roddick became the latest big name upset by losing to 19-year-old Croat Marin Cilic 6-4, 4-6, 6-4.
American Roddick appeared baffled by the hard-hitting Cilic, but after dropping the opening set broke at 5-4 to take the second. However, Roddick's momentum stalled in the third and Cilic then took control.
Roddick became increasingly agitated and frustrated as the match slipped away, smashing his racket and spending parts of the set arguing with the chair umpire.
"Something doesn't feel comfortable," said Roddick, who was playing only his seventh match since injuring his back at the Rome Masters in early May.
"It's a little bit across the board. My forehand is just not doing anything. I'm missing it and that's the one that I need to click right now."
French Open and new Wimbledon champion Nadal stopped plucky Russian Igor Andreev 6-2, 7-6 to improve his unbeaten streak to 26 matches. "I play a very good match, 100 per cent better," said Nadal. "I was a little bit worried about the second set because Federer happened the same."
Nadal is drawn to face the winner of the Djokovic/Murray encounter.
And Murray, after his 6-2, 0-6, 6-4 victory over Stanislas Wawrinka, said of Djokovic: "He's obviously behind Federer and Nadal, the third best player by a long way. He's playing very well. For me, this is probably his best surface. So I have to go out there and play aggressively. I can't afford to make as many unforced errors as I did but I'm playing well and I'm back in the top 10.
"I think my ranking might go up again after this week so I'm feeling confident."
Djokovic will be looking for his fifth straight win over Murray, although the Scot considers the hard court as his best surface.
Murray looked set to cruise through against Wawrinka after opening up a 4-0 lead, but the big-hitting Swiss improved immeasurably after receiving treatment to his right knee. Suddenly, all his groundstrokes were finding the lines and Murray looked stunned as Wawrinka raced through the second set without dropping a game.
The Scot dug in well at the start of the decider, ensuring he ended his seven-game losing streak, and a break in the crucial seventh game allowed Murray to serve out for victory. Murray revealed afterwards he used his previous meetings with Wawrinka to keep his motivation up in the third set.
"I played really well at the start and I felt like I was hitting the ball great," he said. "Early in the second set, I had a chance to break him and obviously didn't. He started to pick his game up and it actually got very windy and I started to miss quite a lot of balls, mis-hit a few, I think I missed the ball completely three or four times.
"But I had to stay tough in the third set because he was playing much better.
"I've played Stan quite a few times, we're really good friends, and when I have played him in the past he's struggled a bit to close the matches out so I knew I had to keep fighting and I found some first serves when I needed them and made a few key returns. But it's tough to stay focused when you're making so many mistakes."
In another upset, German Nicolas Kiefer toppled fourth-seeded Russian Nikolai Davydenko 4-6, 6-4, 6-4 while Frenchman Richard Gasquet got the better of Spain's David Ferrer for the first time in four career meetings, winning the encounter 6-3, 6-3.
James Blake, the last remaining American in the $2.6 million tournament, moved on with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over Russian Dmitry Tursunov.
The full article contains 741 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
