Men’s Draw Day Eight Preview – US Open 2012
Three of the Top 10 stars: Roger Federer, Andy Murray and Tomas Berdych are all in action at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center where the last of the four Grand Slam events
is taking place.
The world number one, Federer will take on the American star, Mardy Fish, in the fourth round at Flushing Meadows 2012. He is scheduled to play last match of the morning session at the Arthur
Ashe Stadium.
Both stars will battle each other for the 10th time with Federer leading 8-1 in the FedEx ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Head 2 Head Series against the former Top 10.
The Swiss flashed past Spain’s Fernando Verdasco in straight sets on Saturday. He has yet to lose a set at this major hard court event.
"I had no clue my stats were that good coming in," the Swiss stated after overpowering Verdasco. "I really tried to play offensive against Bjorn Phau in my second match. I did lose more
points than I was hoping to. I think that gave me the confidence to move forward today and conditions helped that because it was quicker during the day."
The 23rd seed, Fish on the other hand battled past Gilles Simon in four sets to progress. He also lost two sets against Nikolay Davydenko in his second round match.
In a late night match at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, third seed Andy Murray will display his spectacular skills against the Canadian number one Milos Raonic.
The Olympic champion laboured past 30th seed Feliciano Lopez in a four-set thriller to set up this date. He dusted away nine out of 13 breakpoints he came across and cashed in
three out of 12 break chances, ultimately sealing the match with a 7-6(5), 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(4) victory.
Seeded 15th in this event, Raonic slaughtered the former world number four, James Blake from United States, with a bagel to advance. He needed one hour and 48 minutes to crush
the local wild card entrant in straight sets. The Canadian youngster lost his serve once but broke his opponent’s serve five times to earn the glory.
Raonic conquered the British number one in their only encounter at the Barcelona Open BancSabadell earlier this circuit.
“If I'm serving well, I'm hitting my spots, it's about making him feel as uncomfortable as possible,” Raonic reflected. “If I serve well, that's sort of what sort of happens. It's a ripple
effect.”
The Czech number one, Berdych, will take on 11th seed Nicolas Almagro in the opening match at the Louis Armstrong Stadium. The sixth seed is leading the head-to-head series by
6-3 against Almagro. Berdych dumped the Spaniard in straight sets in their last meeting at the Internazionali BNL D’Italia.
Ranked seventh in the world, Berdych is coming off a final showdown at the Winston-Salem Open (lost to John Isner in the final round) while Almagro did not participated in any of the US
Open warm-up tournaments.
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“If I'm serving well, I'm hitting my spots, it's about making him feel as uncomfortable as possible,” said Raonic. “If I serve well, that's sort of what sort of happens. It's a ripple effect.”
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