The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Nadal and Federer cruise ahead

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Sport - Tennis

Nadal and Federer cruise ahead

Nikolay Davydenko loses to Juergen Melzer
Bartoli knocks out Wozniacki in Stuttgart

ROME: The world’s top two men’s tennis players, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, enjoyed comfortable wins at the Rome Masters here on Wednesday.

Spain’s world No. 1 Nadal, who had a bye into round two, beat Italy’s Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-3, while Federer progressed with a 6-4, 6-4 win over Ivo Karlovic.

The Rome crowd briefly had hope of seeing its man spring another surprise when Seppi took Nadal’s serve in the first game with a big forehand return.

But the Spaniard hit back with three breaks of his own in the first set and another in the second to march on to an encounter with Swede Robin Soderling.

World No. 2 Federer clinched the first set of his match with a sweet backhand volley at the net, after stealing the towering Croat Karlovic’s big serve in the third game.

Another break at the start of the second set was enough to seal victory for the Swiss, who is looking for his first title of the year and will now meet Radek Stepanek, the Czech who knocked him out in the quarterfinals here last year.

Good start

“I got off to a good start in both sets, which is always kind of comforting against Ivo,” said Federer.

“He found his groove on his serve later but I already had the break in the second, which is perfect.

“It was important to be really solid on my serve. I had two close service games in the beginning. From then on, I was pretty much cruising.”

Seventh-seeded Nikolay Davydenko lost 7-5, 7-6(5) to Austria’s Juergen Melzer.

Dementieva advances

At Stuttgart, Olympic champion Elena Dementieva booked her place in the quarterfinals of Stuttgart’s WTA tournament with a straight sets win over Hungary’s Agnes Szavay on Thursday.

The 27-year-old Russian had to come back from 4-1 down in the first set to win the tie-break which broke her 20-year-old opponent’s spirit.

Having made Dementieva work hard in the first set, Szavay put up little resistance in the second as the Beijing gold medal winner eased away to a 7-6(4), 6-1 win.

“I really had a slow start, it was tough to come back from 4-1 down,” said Dementieva, who is looking to improve her clay-court game here ahead of the French Open which starts at Roland Garros on May 23.

Dementieva will play France’s Marion Bartoli in Friday’s quarterfinal after the 24-year-old knocked out seventh-seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in straight sets.

But the French player had a tough time as she won the first set tie-break 7-6(6) before going on to take the second 6-4.

The results:

At Rome: Rome Masters: Second round: Tommy Robredo bt Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-2, 7-6(5); Jurgen Melzer bt Nikolay Davydenko 7-5, 7-6(5); Roger Federer bt Ivo Karlovic 6-4, 6-4; Fernando Verdasco bt Mardy Fish 6-4, 5-7, 6-3; Fernando Gonzalez bt Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-4; Stanislas Wawrinka bt Mikhail Youzhny 6-3, 7-6(5); Rafael Nadal bt Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-3; Gilles Simon bt Fabio Fognini 6-7(6), 6-2, 6-3; Radek Stepanek bt Feliciano Lopez 6-2, 6-1; Mischa Zverev bt Paul-Henri Mathieu 3-6, 7-6(5), 6-0; Juan Martin del Potro bt Viktor Troicki 6-3, 1-6, 6-3.

At Stuttgart: Porsche GP: Second round: Gisela Dulko bt Victoria Azarenka 6-4, 6-3; Marion Bartoli bt Caroline Wozniacki 7-6(6), 6-4; Elena Dementieva bt Agnes Szavay 7-6(4), 6-1.