Federer Edges Magician at ATP Doha
Posted on January 5, 2006While it was far from easy, world No. 1 Roger Federer scored his seventh consecutive win over his pre-No. 1-days nemesis Fabrice "The Magician" Santoro Wednesday at the ATP stop in Doha, edging the Frenchman 7-6(2), 7-6(5) to advance into the semifinals.
"The last thing I want to do is get frustrated and I never do," Federer said. "Maybe I used to when I wasn't up to it, but now I have proved myself so much that there is never a sense of frustration against anyone, no matter how big their serve, how good they are the net, or how good they are at mixing up their games, so that is a big advantage to have in my game."
Other seeded winners were (2) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Vik) and (7) Gael Monfils (d. Moodie), while (8) Feliciano Lopez fell to Marcos Baghdatis in three sets.
Tommy Haas ended Tim Henman's winning ways in straight sets, joined by fellow unseeded sratight-set winners Dmitry Tursunov (d. (WC) El Aynaoui) of Russia, countryman Mikhail Youzhny (d. Sanguinetti), and Filippo Volandri (d. (Q) Starace) winning an all-Italian showdown.
"I wasn't serving well while Tommy got his act together," Henman told BBC Online. "You know how important the serves are in tennis, and I'm going to work on mine."
Thursday's quarterfinal match-ups in Doha are Haas vs. Youzhny, (1) Federer vs. Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis, (7) Gael "Force" Monfils vs. Tursunov, and Volandri vs. (2) Davydenko.
"The last thing I want to do is get frustrated and I never do," Federer said. "Maybe I used to when I wasn't up to it, but now I have proved myself so much that there is never a sense of frustration against anyone, no matter how big their serve, how good they are the net, or how good they are at mixing up their games, so that is a big advantage to have in my game."
Other seeded winners were (2) Nikolay Davydenko (d. Vik) and (7) Gael Monfils (d. Moodie), while (8) Feliciano Lopez fell to Marcos Baghdatis in three sets.
Tommy Haas ended Tim Henman's winning ways in straight sets, joined by fellow unseeded sratight-set winners Dmitry Tursunov (d. (WC) El Aynaoui) of Russia, countryman Mikhail Youzhny (d. Sanguinetti), and Filippo Volandri (d. (Q) Starace) winning an all-Italian showdown.
"I wasn't serving well while Tommy got his act together," Henman told BBC Online. "You know how important the serves are in tennis, and I'm going to work on mine."
Thursday's quarterfinal match-ups in Doha are Haas vs. Youzhny, (1) Federer vs. Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis, (7) Gael "Force" Monfils vs. Tursunov, and Volandri vs. (2) Davydenko.