Federer, Agassi Do Double Duty in DubaiPosted on February 26, 2005 Only two of the four ATP Dubai quarterfinals were completed Friday due to rain, meaning world No. 1 Roger Federer and former No. 1 Andre Agassi will have to win two on Saturday to reach the final.
No. 5 seed Tommy Robredo ended the run of unseeded Nicolas Kiefer in straight sets in the first quarterfinal, followed by hot-handed No. 8 seed Ivan Ljubicic handing No. 3 Tim Henman a straight-set defeat. Henman led 2-0 in the second set, but after a rain delay was swamped by the Croatians big serving and ground game. "It was really, really difficult," said Ljubicic, who weathered seven rain delays for the win. "We stopped I don't know how many times. It was really difficult to get an rhythm but I'm really pleased to get through this one. It's really nice to be in the semis again...Tim was making some unusual mistakes, obviously it wasn't easy even for him to play here." The top-seeded Federer was rained out against No. 7-seeded Russian Mikhail Youzhny, and the No. 4-seeded Agassi's match was postponed with No. 6-seeded Russian Nikolay Davydenko. Saturday's schedule on the Dubai hardcourts is (4) Agassi vs. (6) Davydenko, (1) Federer vs. (7) Youzhny, (8) Ljubicic vs. (5) Robredo, then the Federer-Youzhny winner vs. the Agassi-Davydenko winner. Update: In early Saturday play at Dubai, Andre Agassi and Roger Federer both won their rain-delayed quarterfinal matches and will face each other later today in the semifinals. |
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