ATP World Tour No. 2 Roger Federer halted Taylor Dent’s comeback bid by defeating the American qualifier 6-3, 6-2 on Tuesday to reach the quarter-finals of the Sony Ericsson Open, an ATP World Tour Masters 1000 tennis tournament in Miami.
World No. 467 Dent, who peaked at No. 21 in August 2005, squandered eight break point chances in the 85-minute match and was made to pay the price as Federer converted three of his 11 break point opportunities to secure victory in the pair’s first meeting.
Dent has been sidelined for much of the past three years with a back injury that required two surgeries in 2007. The 27 year old reached the Sony Ericsson Open quarter-finals on his last main draw appearance in 2005 (l. to Agassi).
The 27-year-old Federer is chasing his third Sony Ericsson Open title after triumphing in 2005 (d. Nadal) and 2006 (d. Ljubicic). He improved to a 33-8 event record. The right-hander has amassed 14 ATP World Tour Masters 1000 titles in his illustrious career, second only to Andre Agassi – who won 17. His last title came at 2007 Cincinnati (d. Blake).
The Swiss is yet to win a title in 2009, having been denied the chance to tie Pete Sampras’ all-time record of 14 Grand Slam titles by Rafael Nadal in the Australian Open final. Last week he reached the semi-finals at ATP World Tour Masters 1000 Indian Wells, where he lost to Andy Murray.
In a repeat of the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open quarter-finals, Federer will take on Andy Roddick after the fifth-seeded American edged past France’s Gael Monfils 7-6(2), 6-4. Roddick’s victory over Federer in the quarter-finals last year stemmed the flow of 11 straight wins for Federer against the American. However, Federer has since defeated Roddick in the semi-finals of the Australian Open and takes a 16-2 career lead into the encounter.
"I love playing against him," said Federer of Roddick. "I played him at the Australian Open and played well against him there. He's seems like he's changed a couple of thing in his game, so should be a good match, I'm sure. I think on the big occasions I just have that extra gear that not many players have. So I feel like that's an advantage, because of my talent, because of my experience. But in a match, best of three against a guy like Andy, it's all to play for really. He's always been dangerous. I've always respected him a huge amount."
In Roddick’s fourth-round match, the No. 9 seed Monfils had the chance to serve out a one-set lead at 6-5, but Roddick rallied to immediately recover the break and went on to clinch the tie-break 7-2. The second set was a more straightforward affair for Roddick, who broke once in the third game before going on to serve out victory after one hour and 36 minutes.
In assessing his performance, Roddick said: “Even when I got down that break, I kind of felt like I was playing the way I wanted to. I just didn't execute that game that I got broken. Still felt like I was doing the right things. Fortunately for me he gave me another look. From the breaker on I felt like I was in control.”
The 26-year-old Roddick is chasing his second title at the Sony Ericsson Open, after previously triumphing in 2004 with victory over Guillermo Coria. He also reached the semi-finals last year (d. Federer, l. to Davydenko) and had quarter-final efforts in 2006 (l. to Ferrer) and 2007 (ret. vs. Murray).
World No. 3 Novak Djokovic advanced to the quarter-finals in style with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Czech No. 21 seed Tomas Berdych. The 2008 Australian Open champion converted five of 11 break point chances and surrendered only four points behind his first serve to extend his career lead over Berdych to 2-0 after just 72 minutes.
“Nothing is easy in these stages of the tournament,” said Djokovic. “I'm playing a Top 20 player, and a player who has won against basically all the top players in this moment - so it's never easy to play, on this surface especially. I was trying to stick with him all the time, because I knew he's very aggressive, but not really consistent from the baseline. He makes a lot of unforced errors, especially from the forehand side, so I changed the pace and I played really good tennis today.”
Two years ago, Djokovic triumphed at the Sony Ericsson Open without dropping a set as he posted wins over Nadal, Murray and qualifier Guillermo Canas. However, the right-hander suffered a shock second-round defeat to World No. 122 Kevin Anderson in his title defence last year.
Djokovic next will take on 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who prevailed 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-2 against No. 7 Gilles Simon in an all-French fourth-round clash. Djokovic defeated Tsonga in their first meeting in the 2008 Australian Open final, but has since lost to the Le Mans native four times in succession – including in the 2008 Bangkok final and in the Marseille semi-finals last month.
“I lost to Tsonga four times in a row, so he has a little advantage probably there,” said Djokovic. “But I think all the matches we played were very close. It's going to be a challenge for me to win.”
With a 25-4 match record in 2009, Tsonga is second only to Roddick (26-4) in match wins on the ATP World Tour. The 23 year old has won two ATP World Tour titles this season at Johannesburg (d. Chardy) and Marseille (d. Llodra) and was a quarter-finalist at the Australian Open (l. to Verdasco).
(From Website : http://www.atpworldtour.com/TENNIS/1/EN/NEWS/NEWSARTICLE_2887.ASP)
