ATP World Tour No. 1 Rafael Nadal took one step closer to winning his first Sony Ericsson Open title with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over gutsy Portuguese qualifier Frederico Gil on Monday in Miami to reach the fourth round of the second ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament of the season.
Nadal's 23rd victory of the season (23-2) was far from straightforward for the Spaniard. The Mallorca native had an early 3-1 advantage cut as Gil ralled to win three straight games and lead 4-3. Gil was just two points away from the set when he led 15-30 on Nadal’s serve at 4-5, but the left-hander’s resilience told as he held serve before breaking in the 12th game and closing out a 7-5 first set.
Gil, who toppled No. 26 seed Ivo Karlovic in the second round, etched out a 2-0 lead in the second set. However, Nadal hit back to win six of the next seven games to close out Gil’s challenge after one hour and 35 minutes.
Nadal is searching for his first Sony Ericsson Open crown after twice being denied in the 2005 (l. to Federer) and 2008 (l. to Davydenko) title matches.
The Spaniard takes a 3-0 career lead in his fourth-round meeting with Swiss 16th seed Stanislas Wawrinka, who rallied from a one-set deficit to defeat 20th-seeded Russian Igor Andreev 4-6, 6-3, 6-3. The Lausanne native, who celebrated his 24th birthday on Saturday, is looking to reach his first quarter-final of the season after falling short at the fourth round stage last week in Indian Wells (l. to Djokovic).
ATP World Tour No. 4 Andy Murray was not at his best, but came through a testing encounter with Chile’s Nicolas Massu 6-4, 6-4. The Scot rallied from a 0-3 deficit in the first set to win six of the next seven games and secure a one-set lead before racing into a 5-1 lead in the second set. Massu kept fighting and recovered one of the breaks of serve to bring the score back to 5-4. But, at the second time of asking, Murray saved two break points before serving out victory after one hour and 47 minutes.
"Well, the end and the start weren't particularly good, but the middle part was very good," assessed Murray. "Obviously happy I managed to close the match out in two sets. I lost my concentration towards the end, but I'll focus on what I did well. Today I hit the ball much better from the baseline than I did in the first match. Just make sure that that sort of slip in concentration doesn't happen again."
The 21-year-old Murray has reached the final at three of the past four ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events and is bidding for his third title after triumphing in Cincinnati (d. Djokovic) and Madrid (d. Simon). Last week he finished runner-up to Nadal in the final of ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells after having defeated Roger Federer in the semi-finals.
In a bid to reach his second Sony Ericsson Open quarter-final (l. to Djokovic in 2007 semifinal), Murray will take on Serbia’s Viktor Troicki, who dismissed German lucky loser Bjorn Phau 6-4, 6-3. Troicki is currently a career-high No. 41 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings after compiling an 11-7 match record at the start of the season.
Sixth-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro (pictured) booked his place in the fourth round with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic. The youngest member of the Top 10, aged 20, won 92 per cent of points behind his first serve and converted four of five break points to defeat 2008 Sony Ericsson Open quarter-finalist Tipsarevic in 68 minutes.
World No. 7 del Potro improved to a 6-2 match record at the Sony Ericsson Open and is through to the fourth round for the second time in three years (l. to Nadal in 2007). The top South American player will look to reach his third ATP World Tour Masters 1000 quarter-final when he takes on 11th-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer, who battled past 17th-seeded Croatian Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in two hours and seven minutes.
The 26-year-old Ferrer, who reached a career-high No. 4 in the South African Airways 2009 ATP Rankings in February 2008, advanced to the semi-finals in Miami in 2005 (l. to Nadal) and 2006 (l. to Federer).
Radek Stepanek, the No. 18 seed from the Czech Republic, fought back from a 1-4 deficit in the first set to claim a 7-6(1), 6-4 victory over Chilean 12th seed Fernando Gonzalez and reach the Miami fourth round for the sixth time in the past seven years. The former World No. 8 won his third and fourth ATP World Tour titles at Brisbane (d. Verdasco) and San Jose (d. Fish) and finished runner-up in Memphis (l. to Roddick) to help compile a 19-5 match record this season.
Stepanek goes on to face No. 8 seed Fernando Verdasco, who knocked out No. 32 Feliciano Lopez 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 in an all-Spanish clash. Verdasco’s victory signifies that the top 11 seeds are through to the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open for the first time in the tournament’s 25-year history.
The Madrid resident, who last week lost out to Federer in the Indian Wells quarter-finals, is through to the Sony Ericsson Open fourth round for the first time in seven main draw appearances. The left-hander has never advanced past the quarter-finals of an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 event.(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_2875.ASP)
