CINCINNATI, 19 August 2006 — Second seed Rafael Nadal and emerging British prospect Andy Murray survived tough tests to reach the Cincinnati Masters quarterfinals on Thursday.
Nadal battled past German Tommy Haas 7-6, 6-3 and Murray followed up his win over world No. 1 Roger Federer by recovering from 4-2 down in the final set to beat American Robby Ginepri 7-6, 2-6, 6-4.
American ninth seed Andy Roddick will play Murray next after he beat Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-4 in the late match.
French Open champion Nadal meets Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero, who knocked out Swede Robin Soderling 7-5, 6-4.
“It’s going to be a tough match,” Nadal said. “He’s a very good player. I need to play my best tennis. “(Today) I played a good match. I felt comfortable on court. I am happy because I was beginning the match very well.
I was playing my best tennis in the first games.” In the most humid conditions of the week, Haas led 5-3 in the tiebreak only for the Spaniard to win four consecutive points to take the opening set.
Games went with serve in the second set until the eighth when Nadal broke to love.
The 19-year-old Murray dug deep to dismiss Ginepri, a semifinalist at last year’s US Open.
Playing his 13th match in 16 days, the Scot led 3-1 before he was pegged back to 3-3.
Murray saved two set points at 4-5 and went on to snatch the tiebreak 7-3.
Ginepri rallied to take the second set and led 4-2 in the decider but a revitalized Murray broke twice to set up a meeting with Roddick.
Murray beat Roddick on the way to his first ATP title in February and knocked him out at Wimbledon in June.
Fourth seed Ivan Ljubicic beat Slovak Dominik Hrbaty 7-5 6-4 and next faces seventh seed Tommy Robredo of Spain. Chilean 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez also advanced after a 7-6, 7-5 win over unseeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka. He will play Spain’s David Ferrer, who beat Australian Open runner-up Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus 7-5, 6-4.
