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NEW YORK: Rafael Nadal kept his US Open campaign on
track on Sunday despite a painful knee as Spanish-speaking
clay-court players clamped a stranglehold on the bottom half of the
draw.
The 21-year-old second-seeded
Spaniard charged into the last 16 by defeating big-hitting Frenchman
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, 6-1, winning 10 out of the last
11 games after a tough first set.
Following him into the fourth
round were compatriots and close friends Carlos Moya and David
Ferrer as well as Argentine pair Juan Monaco and Juan Ignacio Chela,
all better know for their skills on clay rather than hardcourts.
American hopes of posting a third
qualifier for the last 16 after Andy Roddick and James Blake were
sunk when Robby Ginepri went down 5-7, 6-4, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 to
Switzerland’s other Top 100 player, Stanislas Wawrinka.
French Open champion Nadal once
again had strapping on both knees when he took on Tsonga, but he
looked much more at ease than in the first two rounds when he
struggled with his fitness and needed courtside treatment.
Things were improving, he said,
but Nadal admitted that the pain was still a factor he had to deal
with.
“When I go on court, I start
with a little bit pain, but after it is not so bad. The knee gets a
little bit warmer,” he said. “When I get in tie-break, I don’t
think about the pain for a moment. I just think about the match.”
Nadal’s next opponent will be
compatriot and close friend Ferrer, who saved a match point against
Argentina’s David Nalbandian before winning a grueling 6-3, 3-6,
4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-5 encounter that lasted just short of four hours.
Also winning a marathon was Chela,
one of a record five Argentinians playing their third-round ties in
the bottom half of the draw on Sunday. He finished stronger to beat
Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Life was much simpler for the
fast-rising Monaco, who trounced Lleyton Hewitt’s conquerer
Agustin Calleri and will next go up against third seed Novak
Djokovic of Serbia, who had a routine 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 win over
18-year-old Juan Martin del Potro of Argentina in the featured night
match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium court.
Moya, at 31 playing in his 12th
US Open, reached the fourth round for the fourth time with a gritty
four-hour 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-5), 4-6, 6-4 win over Germany’s Philipp
Kohlschreiber.
He will have the chance to avenge
compatriot and eighth seed Tommy Robredo, who was eliminated 6-1,
6-3, 6-2 by Ernests Gulbis, a 19-year-old Latvian newcomer whose
grandfather played basketball for the old Soviet Union.
--AFP
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