GSTAAD, Switzerland, 11 July 2003 — Wimbledon champion Roger Federer stormed into the Swiss Open quarterfinals for the first time with a 6-1, 6-2 demolition of Frenchman Jean-Rene Lisnard yesterday.
The top seed and home favorite, who had never made it beyond the second round in Gstaad, disposed of Lisnard decisively in front of a sell-out 6,000 crowd.
Federer will next face Spaniard David Sanchez who knocked out defending champion and seventh seed Alex Corretja 6-4, 6-4. Federer, now ranked third in the world after becoming the first Swiss male Grand Slam winner at Wimbledon on Sunday, struggled to adapt to the clay courts high in the Alps on Tuesday when he scraped past Spanish qualifier Marc Lopez.
But the 21-year-old from Basel rediscovered his Wimbledon form with a commanding performance against unseeded Lisnard.
“The game went perfectly for me and my serve was excellent all of the time — just like Wimbledon,” said Federer, who won seven games in a row and took only 53 minutes to secure victory. Corretja, who has won the clay court event three times in the last five years, lost in the opening match of the day as his poor recent form continued. Corretja had not initially entered the Gstaad tournament because his wife was due to give birth on July 4, but was handed a wild card after his daughter Aroa arrived early.
Second seed Rainer Schuettler of Germany, the Australian Open finalist, set up a quarterfinal against Czech Radek Stepanek, seeded eight, after both came through their second round games unscathed.
Schuettler saw off Belgium’s Christophe Rochus 6-3, 7-6, while Stepanek overcame Switzerland’s Michel Kratochvil 6-3, 7-6.
Moya and Robredo Into
Swedish Open Quarters
In Bastad, Sweden, Spanish top seed Carlos Moya strode into the Swedish Open quarterfinals yesterday by beating Swedish teenager Robin Soderling 6-3, 6-4.
Moya joined second-seeded compatriot Tommy Robredo who earned a place in the last eight after a more testing 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win over Moroccan Hicham Arazi. After a comfortable first set Moya was broken to 2-1 in the second but he never really seemed threatened by Soderling and eventually broke back to 3-3. The support of a nearly full stadium could not lift the 18-year-old Swede, who was broken again in the final game, allowing Moya to clinch victory in one hour and 14 minutes. Moya next takes on Swedish doubles specialist Jonas Bjorkman, the Wimbledon quarter-finalist who kept home hopes alive by outclassing David Ferrer, another Spaniard, 6-2, 6-1.
Earlier in the day Robredo struggled to counter Arazi’s clever baseline play in the first set but overpowered the Moroccan in the second to take the match into a decider.
Robredo led 5-2 and held match points on Arazi’s serve, but failed to take them and was then broken back. Arazi failed to hold serve, though, as Robredo finally clinched the match after two hours and 13 minutes on court. He now plays Italian Filippo Volandri who easily disposed of Frenchman Olivier Mutis 6-3, 6-0.
Paradorn Hoping to
Impress Home Crowd
In Bangkok, Thai tennis star Paradorn Srichaphan hopes to perform well in front of his home crowd at the first ever ATP tournament to be held in Thailand this September, his father and coach said yesterday.
Chanachai Srichaphan said several top-10 players were intending to take part in the Thailand Open, which will be held at the Impact Arena stadium in suburban Bangkok from Sept. 22-28. Chanachai said he expected US star Andy Roddick, Spain’s Carlos Moya, and French Open Champion Juan Carlos Ferrero to contest the tournament.
