BASTAD, Sweden, 10 July 2003 — Spanish teenager Rafael Nadal reached the Swedish Open quarterfinals by demolishing compatriot Albert Portas 6-0, 6-4 yesterday.
Russian fourth seed Mikhail Youzhny and Argentine fifth seed Mariano Zabaleta also pulled through to the last eight, where they will face each other.
Nadal overpowered his 30-year-old opponent from the baseline and could do nothing wrong in the first set, hitting spectacular winners from both sides. Portas raised his game in the second set and both players held serve up to 5-4 at which stage the 17-year-old from Mallorca finally proved too strong for his rival and broke him to clinch the match. Youzhny needed three sets before overcoming Argentine Franco Squillari 6-1, 5-7, 6-2, while Zabaleta smashed homecrowd hopes by beating Swedish wild card Bjorn Rehnquist 6-1 6-2 in a one-sided affair.Nadal next takes on Ecuador’s sixth seed Nicolas Lapentti, who defeated Romanian Adrian Voinea 6-4, 7-6 in a close battle that lasted almost two hours.
Novak and Gaudio Reach
Swiss Open Quarterfinals
In Gstaad, Switzerland, former winner Czech Jiri Novak moved into the Swiss Open quarterfinals after coming from behind to defeat Frenchman Paul-Henri Mathieu yesterday.
The third-seeded Novak, who won the tournament in 2001, triumphed 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 and will be joined in the last eight by fellow seeds Gaston Gaudio and Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina, who were both taken the distance high in the Alps. Novak, 28, was sluggish in the opening set as 21-year-old Mathieu got the upper hand, but an early break in the second set got the Czech back on level terms.
Another break midway through the deciding set was enough to earn Novak a place in the quarterfinals where he will now face Argentine Chela, the fifth seed.
Chela beat Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 6-4, 6-7, 7-6 while his fourth-seeded compatriot Gaudio, who lost to Spaniard Alex Corretja in last year’s final, battled through by defeating German Lars Burgsmuller 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Gaudio will now face Stefan Koubek after the Austrian disposed of veteran Frenchman Anthony Dupuis 6-1, 6-2.T he other second round games will are scheduled for today when newly-crowned Wimbledon champion Roger Federer faces Frenchman Jean-Rene Lisnard.
