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INDIAN WELLS, California: Defending champion Rafael Nadal swept
aside US youngster Donald Young and booked a rematch with Aussie
Open foe Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the Indian Wells ATP Masters Series
on Monday.
Nadal, ranked number two in the world and seeded
second behind world’s No. 1 Roger Federer, defeated 86th-ranked
Young 6-1, 6-3, taking full advantage of the 18-year-old wild
card’s early nerves to pocket the first set quickly.
Young steadied in the second set, but was broken
in the sixth game to trail 2-4. With Nadal serving for the match at
5-3, Young was unable to capitalize on one break point and the
Spaniard duly served out what he called a “comfortable” win.
“I think he started very nervous,” Nadal
said. “You see the score, it was 4-0 [in the first set]. In the
second set, I have the break for 4-2, I think he had some mistakes.
“I didn’t play my best tennis, but I
didn’t play bad.”
Next up for Nadal is Tsonga, who was unseeded
when he stunned the second-seeded Spaniard in straight sets in the
Australian Open semi-finals in January.
Tsonga, now ranked 17th in the world, defeated
fellow Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
“It’s going to be important for me to serve
well,” Nadal said of his looming encounter with Tsonga, who fell
to the Spaniard in the first of their two meetings to date, at the
US Open last year.
“He’s strong in his serve,” Nadal said.
“From the baseline I must try to play a little bit more aggressive
than in Australia.”
In other matches, No. 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia
downed Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-2; No. 8 Richard
Gasquet of France defeated Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela 6-2, 6-1
and No. 9 American James Blake outplayed former world’s No. 1
Carlos Moya of Spain 6-3, 6-4.
Also advancing in the fourth round of this
$5.7-million tournament were Australian Open semifinalist Jelena
Jankovic, France’s Marion Bartoli and former world’s No. 1
Lindsay Davenport, a two-time winner of this event, who held on for
a 6-4, 5-7, 6-2 victory over Taiwan’s Chan Yung-Jan.
Women’s top seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia
advanced with ease, downing Italy’s Tathiana Garbin 6-3, 6-0.
Ivanovic, whose runner-up finish to Maria
Sharapova at the Australian Open propelled her to number two in the
world, was pleased to turn in a solid performance after her erratic
6-1, 5-7, 6-0 victory over Romanian Ioana Raluca Olaru in the
previous round.
Ivanovic’s third-seeded com-patriot Jelena
Jankovic also cruised into the fourth round, posting a 6-1, 6-1
victory over Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama.
-- AFP
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