3 Top 10 Seeds Upset; Federer, Blake Up Monday at Australian Open
Posted on January 20, 2008
Upsets were on the menu Sunday at the Australian Open where No. 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko, No. 8 Richard Gasquet, and No. 10 David Nalbandian were ousted by lower-ranked opponents.
Davydenko was dismissed in straight sets 7-6(2), 6-3, 6-1 by Russian countryman and No. 14 seed Mikhail Youzhny, while Gasquet was likewise tripped up by a countryman, beaten 6-2, 6-7(5), 7-6(6), 6-3 by French compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.
"I played well. I was very good in my body," said Tsonga, who has showed suspect fitness levels in past Slam appearances. "I felt everything good, so that's the difference, maybe. I feel good. I work a lot before this tournament, so I'm ready to play."
Nalbandian was never in the contest against sharp former No. 1 and No. 22 seed Juan Carlos Ferrero, who trounced the Argentine 6-1, 6-2, 6-3 in a rain-delayed third-round match.
"I'm playing good tennis since, I don't know, two months, something like this," Ferrero said. "I practice so hard in December. Last week I played good. At the end of the last year I played good matches against top players. I came playing well."
Other players into the quarterfinals were No. 2 Rafael Nadal who advanced when No. 23 Paul-Henri Mathieu retired in the second set with injury, and No. 24 Jarkko Nieminen who topped Andy Roddick's conqueror, No. 29 Philipp Kohlschreiber 3-6, 7-6(7), 7-6(9), 6-3.
"I feel obviously amazing," said Nieminen who saved 11 set points against Kohlschreiber. "It's been a great start of the year, finals in Adelaide and quarterfinals here and third quarterfinals in Grand Slam, so it feels great. I was calm I saw myself taking those tiebreaks, and then obviously it was really small margin, one point here and there."
Also playing a rain-delayed third-round match was No. 5 seed David Ferrer who eased past unseeded American Vince Spadea 6-3, 6-3, 6-2.
Scheduled for Monday in Melbourne are (1) Roger Federer vs. (13) Tomas Berdych, (3) Novak Djokovic vs. (19) Lleyton Hewitt, (22) Juan Carlos Ferrero vs. (5) David Ferrer, and (12) James Blake vs. Marin Cilic.
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