Top seed Andy Roddick served a barrage of aces to beat fellow American Robby Ginepri 7-6, 7-6 and reach the Lyon Grand Prix quarterfinals in France yesterday.
"Robby certainly played better than me today and my serve obviously made the difference," said the former world No. 1, whose 26 aces included one on a set point for Ginepri in the second tiebreak.
Roddick faces Robin Soderling for a place in the last four. The seventh-seeded Swede easily swept past Belgian qualifier Christophe Rochus 6-1, 6-2 in only 46 minutes.
Soderling beat Roddick in the quarterfinals in Memphis earlier this year.
The American, who is sixth in the race for the season-ending Masters Cup, is bidding for one of the three remaining places in the eight-man Shanghai event next month.
By contrast, Richard Gasquet, who played the Masters Cup last year, suffered another frustrating defeat when he was beaten 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 by Belgian Steve Darcis.
The second-seeded Frenchman served for the match in the third set but failed once again in a season to forget.
In Russia, Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan advanced to his first career quarterfinal yesterday, beating eighth-seeded Marat Safin 6-4, 6-2 at the St. Petersburg Open.
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Marat Safin reacts during his match against Kazakhstan's Andrey Golubev at the St. Petersburg Open. |
Safin, the 31st-ranked Russian who has twice won the tournament, had trouble on his serve, winning only 15 of 51 returned points.
The 150th-ranked Golubev, who reached the second round of the US Open in September, broke Safin in the fifth game of the first set but double-faulted three times in the next game to drop serve and stay level at 3-3.
In the ninth game, Safin saved three break points with aces but was broken on the third deuce and Golubev served for the set.
"The second break in the first set was a decisive one," Safin said. "He became confident and it was much more difficult to play against him. In fact, I didn't have many chances in the second set."
Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia advanced to his fourth quarterfinal this season, beating Jeremy Chardy of France 6-4, 7-6 (3), while Victor Hanescu of Romania beat Kazakh qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin 6-3, 7-6 (7).
In Basel, Switzerland, sixth-seeded Igor Andreev needed more than two hours to overcome Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber 7-6 (6), 6-7 (0), 7-5 at the Swiss Indoors on Wednesday and move a step closer to his third final of the year. Andreev fired 17 aces to reach his eighth quarterfinals of the year.
(Agencies via Shanghai Daily October 24, 2008)