PARIS, 30 May 2005 — Roger Federer belted past injured Carlos Moya in a quick 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 romp yesterday while Rafael Nadal felt the wrath of a partisan crowd as he took a lead over Sebastien Grosjean before rain intervened to end play for the day at the French Open.
Nadal, riding a 20-match win streak on clay and along with Federer a trophy favorite, held a 6-4, 3-6, 3-0 lead when his ill-tempered contest was called for the night.
The Roland Garros crowd got into the match in an ugly way, forcing play to be halted for more than six minutes after Nadal broke to lead a set 1-0 over France’s Grosjean.
When Argentine chair umpire Damian Steiner refused to come down to check a mark on a call against Grosjean, noisy whistling and jeering ensured.
It finally died enough for play to commence, but resumed every time the score was called for 18-year-old Nadal’s serves.
With the psychological momentum shifting, the rattled young Spaniard lost his first set of the week, finding himself level with Grosjean. With Nadal leading 3-0 in the third, play was called for the evening.
Grosjean was celebrating his 27th birthday while Nadal is looking for his fifth win of the year against a French player. Federer, now 45-2 on the year as he chases the one Grand Slam title to elude him, said he was surprised that 1998 Paris champion Moya even finished their match as he competed with a chronic shoulder problem which has flared.
“I felt that he had no faith in his own tennis,” said the Swiss top seed. “I’m glad that I managed to save some energy.
“I was even surprised that he finished the match, which proves that he’s a real champion. He could have stopped before.”
Moya lost the first two sets in just over an hour, with Federer opening the third with a break. With the Swiss in command, the rain which had been forecast for the afternoon arrived in the form of slight drizzle, only seeming to strengthen the Federer reserve.
“It’s very hard to kind of say how well I played,” said Federer. “I knew in how much sort of pain he was and that he was far off from 100 percent.
“For me it was all about kind of being focused, try not to make many errors and try to use the advantage that he couldn’t serve.”
Moya said he couldn’t do a thing on court against the world’s best.
“In my last match, the muscles around the shoulder were affected and I was losing strength. Today it was very hard for me to lift the shoulder, to lift the elbow.
“I did my best. It happened right at the beginning of the first set, so I knew it was going to be tough today to win. But I wanted to try and to enjoy on court.”
Argentina, which began the fourth round with a record five men still in contention, lost one as towering Romanian Victor Hanescu outlasted 10th seed David Nalbandian 6-3, 4-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-2.
The 23-year-old ranked 90 became the first from his country into the last eight since Andrei Pavel in 2002.
Women’s top seed Lindsay Davenport shocked herself with a 1-6, 7- 5, 6-3 comeback win over Belgium’s Kim Clijsters, who had beaten the clay-shy Californian in the last six matches going back two and a half years.
“I haven’t been in the quarters since 1999,” said Davenport, with three Grand Slam titles earned -but none in Paris. “I’m pretty happy about that.”
Davenport, down a set and 3-1 before a turnaround, was helped by 11 unforced errors from Clijsters, wearing a strapping on her right knee after an injury.
Second seed Maria Sharapova’s match was stopped by the weather, with the Russian leading Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain, 6-2, 3-3. Nadia Petrova beat fellow Russian Elena Bovina 7-5, 3-6, 6-4; Elena Likhovtseva upset fourth-seeded 2004 finalist Elena Dementieva 7-6 (7-3), 5-7, 7-5 and France’s Mary Pierce needed 11 match points to finally tame Swiss Patty Schnyder 6-1, 1-6, 6-4.
