Monday, March 30, 2009

Nadal, Murray, Venus advance in Miami event


MIAMI (Florida): World number one Rafael Nadal, Britain's Andy Murray and reigning Wimbledon champion Venus Williams all advanced at the ATP and WTA hardcourt tournament on Monday.

Spanish star Nadal, the Australian Open champion, was unhappy with his performance but reached the fourth round nonetheless with a 7-5, 6-3 triumph over Portugal's Frederico Gil.

"No opponent is easy, especially if you're not playing your best tennis. That's what was happening," Nadal said. "I didn't play very well. I had chances to lose the first set. I didn't feel very well on court.

"I always want to win. My motivation is full in every match. But you can't play well every day and today was one of those days."

Nadal will next face either Swiss 16th seed Stanislas Wawrinka or Russian 20th seed Igor Andreev.

Fourth-ranked Murray advanced to the last 16 by defeating Chile's Nicolas Massu 6-4, 6-4. Next for the Scotsman will be 41st-ranked Serbian Viktor Troicki.

US fifth seed Venus Williams ousted Polish 10th seed Agnieszka Radwanska 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 to reach the final eight, but like Nadal she was not happy with her performance.

"Every now and then everybody has those kinds of matches," Williams said. "I was hitting really well in the practice. Came out and things weren't going to the way I imagined they would, but that's tennis.

"I just had a lot of errors. Errors, errors. It seemed like when I had the winner it became an error. On days like that, you have to let the errors go behind you and continue to play aggressively and not pull back."

Williams could face her top-ranked sister Serena, the Australian Open women's champion, in a Miami semi-final.

Australian Samantha Stosur, ranked 42nd, continued her strong run into the quarter-finals by ousting French 20th seed Amelie Mauresmo 6-4, 6-4.

Stosur, who eliminated Russian world number two Dinara Safina in the third round, will next meet 11th seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who defeated Hungarian 25th seed Agnes Szavay 6-2, 6-4.

Danish 13th seed Caroline Wozniacki upset fourth seed Elena Dementieva 7-5, 6-4, to reach the women's quarter-finals.

She next faces another Russian, eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, who beat compatriot Alisa Kleybanova 6-2, 6-1.

Others who reached the men's round of 16 included Argentina's sixth-seeded Juan Martin Del Potro, who beat Serbian Janko Tipsarevic 6-4, 6-1, and Serbian Viktor Troicki, who ousted Germany's Bjorn Phau 6-4, 6-3.

Source:http://sports.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/?frm_TOIHome_top

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