Murray Bounced As Federer, Djokovic Breeze Into Cincinnati Quarterfinals
The summer slog claimed its second victim Thursday in Cincinnati. Gold medalist and tournament defending champion Andy Murray was shown the exits in Mason, Ohio by unheralded lucky loser Jeremy Chardy rather routinenly (and rudely) 6-4, 6-4.
Murray went down a break early in both sets and never really recovered against the Frenchman who earlier had upset another former champion named Andy, Andy Roddick.
“I think I win many matches since the beginning of the year, so I take confidence,” Chardy said. “Last week I beat Jo-Wilfried, this week I beat Andy Roddick first one. So my confidence go up again. Now I feel very good on court, and I play very relax. It’s good when I feel like this on the court.”
Chardy only gained entry when big John Isner withdrew because of a back injury. And he’s made the most it with a career week.
As for Murray, after a very busy, perhaps draining, grass season his US Open prep work is done having played just three matches on the hardcourts. He hinted about knee troubles as well earlier in the week – the same knee that took him out of Toronto. Now he’ll have 10 days off until the US Open begins and provided he gets a decent draw the first week I think he can play into form.
“Always when going into the big tournaments, sometimes I’ve won tournaments in the buildup and it hasn’t helped me,” Murray reminded reporters. “This year Wimbledon I lost in the first round at Queen’s and made the final there for the first time. I have won Queen’s before and not done well at Wimbledon. So it doesn’t normally have that much bearing. But, you know, obviously I would have liked to have done a bit better this week.”
Top seed Roger Federer overwhelmed Bernard Tomic 6-2, 6-4. The slick courts and Tomic’s defensive game played right into Federer’s hands.
“It was humid, but the rallies were never as long,” Federer said. “He was also getting in a few more service winners than he was getting at the Australian Open. So it was more a first-strike tennis, and I think I’m just a bit better at it still today. I was able to mix it up well and not have too many hiccups on my own serve. Then I was able to create some opportunities and take advantage of that and get the win.”
I know Tomic is only 19, but I agree with Brad Gilbert’s on-air comments that the Australian really needs to become more offensive. Murray and Miloslav Mecir are in that same defensive mold as Tomic, but the big difference is they had some serious footspeed. Tomic just doesn’t and the big guys will exploit that.
In the night match, Novak Djokovic had a light workout when Nikolay Davydenko retired with a shoulder injury after losing the first set 6-0.
“The first time I noticed that something is wrong is during his second service game in the match, 3-Love for me,” Djokovic said. “His first serves didn’t go over 90 miles per hour, so something obviously was wrong with his shoulder.”
Juan Martin Del Potro and Milos Raonic, who scored a nice 3-set win over Tomas Berdych, also advanced.
So tomorrow’s quarterfinal round looks like Federer-Mardy Fish, Djokovic-Marin Cilic , Del Potro-Chardy and Raonic-Stan Wawrinka.
“I played him World Tour Final last year in three sets,” Fish said of playing Federer who has beating the American seven of eight times. “Here I didn’t lose my serve until 4-All in the third here two years ago in the final. We have had some good matches. The time before that, I beat him. I look forward to it. It’s a good challenge. I haven’t played someone of his caliber in a while, maybe since I played Nadal here last year.”
I think Federer, Djokovic and Del Potro all get through but maybe Wawrinka pulls the semi-update and beats the Canadian. That’s probably the best match of the bunch. Raonic hasn’t really caught fire this summer like I thought he would. Maybe this week he breaks out.
The women will also play their final eight tomorrow with Serena-Kerber and Venus-Stosur in the marquee matches
ESPN2 has live TV coverage of the quarterfinals starting at 1pm ET Friday.
FRIDAY CINCINNATI SCHEDULE
CENTER COURT start 11:00 am
[6] J Del Potro (ARG) vs [LL] J Chardy (FRA) – ATP
Not Before 1:00 PM
[12] M Cilic (CRO) vs [2] N Djokovic (SRB) – ATP
Not Before 3:00 PM
[5] A Kerber (GER) vs [2] S Williams (USA) – WTA
Not Before 7:00 PM
[1] R Federer (SUI) vs [10] M Fish (USA) – ATP
Not Before 8:30 PM
[6] C Wozniacki (DEN) or [17] A Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) vs [4] P Kvitova (CZE) – WTA
GRANDSTAND start 11:30 am
[6] C Wozniacki (DEN) vs [17] A Pavlyuchenkova (RUS) 46 00 – To Finish 46
Not Before 1:00 PM
[3] S Stosur (AUS) vs [WC] V Williams (USA) – WTA
Not Before 3:00 PM
S Wawrinka (SUI) vs M Raonic (CAN) – ATP
Not Before 7:00 PM
[1] A Radwanska (POL) vs [9] N Li (CHN) or [Q] J Larsson (SWE) – WTA
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Federer Lands in Nadal’s Half at Cincinnati; Roddick Returns
Bad Knees Are Still Bad, Rafael Nadal Forced Out Of Cincinnati For First Time In Career; US Open In Jeopardy?
Federer Opens Summer Hardcourt Tonight In Cincinnati; Djokovic, Murray, Del Potro Also On Tap