BNP Paribas Masters - Federer overcomes Stepanek; Murray cruises past Cilic
World number two and top seed Roger Federer matched his career best run at the BNP Paribas Masters Men’s singles tournament, advancing into the quarter final round on the fourth occasion with a two-setter victory over Radek Stepanek of Czech Republic on
Thursday. The final match score was 6-4, 6-3.
The Czech held level with the Swiss tennis maestro through most of the opening set, even securing the first two break point opportunities, before Roger took complete charge, winning the next five games in a row to take a lead of one set. Federer closed out
the clash in one hour and nineteen minutes in the end.
"He was serving good, he was accurate, and he was coming in a lot, which I kind of expected. I just kind of felt it was going to be a tough match to play. Thank God I already had a couple of really good return games and a good ten, fifteen minutes which
I was able to make a difference on, and then I could cruise home. I survived a scare early on when I was down break point and he was playing well, so it was a good match from my side,” reflected the Swiss after the match on Thursday.
The 29-year-old Federer has now triumphed in fifteen of his last sixteen clashes, making his way into the title battle at the Shanghai Rolex Masters before losing to Andy Murray and winning back-to-back trophies in Stockholm and Basel. He will definitely
look to continue his winning form when he next takes on Jurgen Melzer from Austria in the final eight round.
It will be the third clash in 2010 between the two 29-year-olds, who had not faced each other in tour level action prior to this season. The professional tennis ace from Switzerland triumphed in their fourth round clashes at Wimbledon as well as the United
States Open in straight sets.
While, the sixteen time Grand Slam champion, Federer has made his way into the final at the eight other ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events, he has yet to go beyond the quarter final round at the BNP Paribas Masters, losing at this stage back in 2002, 03
and 08.
Meanwhile, the world number four Andy Murray brushed aside Marin Cilic of Croatia in his third round clash in three sets on Thursday. The final score line was 7-6(6), 3-6, 6-3. The battle concluded in a time period of two hours and seven minutes. The Croatian
held a chance to serve for the first set during the tenth game, and also held a 4-0 lead in the opening-set tie-break.
The Scott as a result of this victory will next meet Gael Monfils of France. Murray leads the pair’s head-to-head series at 3-1.
In the doubles action on Thursday, the sixth seed pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi breezed into the quarter final round at the BNP Paribas Masters after ousting Michael Kohlmann and Jonathan Erlich in three sets. The final match score was 3-6, 6-1,
10-5.
The top seed American duo Bob Byran and Mike Bryan, on the other hand, also cruised past d**k Norman and Wesley Moodie in straight sets later in the evening. The final score line was 7-6(2), 7-6(5).
Elsewhere, the seventh seed Rohan Bopanna and Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi, failed in their attempt to qualify for the Barclays ATP World Tour Final as they were toppled by Andy Ram and Mark Knowles in straight sets. The final match score was 6-3, 6-2.
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