CINCINNATI, 19 August 2005 — American Andy Roddick kept the crowd on their edge of their seats at the Cincinnati Masters on Wednesday night after he fought back from a set down to overcome Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-7, 7-6, 6-2 to reach the third round.
Earlier, world No. 1 Roger Federer, third seed Lleyton Hewitt and No. 4 Marat Safin all advanced following three-set struggles, while Guillermo Coria, David Nalbandian and Tim Henman all tumbled out.
However, the real drama was saved for the night session as fifth-seeded Roddick scrambled to a repeat of his win over Ferrero in the final of the 2003 US Open. Now ranked 24 in the world, former No. 1 Ferrero played some of his best tennis since that final almost two years ago, serving superbly and hammering winners from both sides to take the opening set.
Roddick, runner-up at Wimbledon last month but a loser to Paul-Henri Mathieu in the first round of last week’s Montreal Masters, saved two break points — one with a lucky net cord — in the fourth game of the second set.
That proved to be the turning point of the match. Once he had taken the set in a tiebreak thanks to some massive serving, he grew in confidence and finally broke Ferrero’s serve in the second game of the decider before cruising to victory.
Earlier, Federer produced a sluggish and inconsistent performance but still managed to beat German Nicolas Kiefer 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Hewitt showed his stomach for a scrap, battling back to beat Greg Rusedski 1-6, 7-5, 6-4. Having been forced to withdraw from his opening match in Montreal last week because of a virus, the third-seeded Australian looked out of sorts as Rusedski romped through the opening set in 20 minutes. Although the Briton had four chances to break in the second set, Hewitt snatched it with one break of his own.
He then repeated the feat in the third to clinch a meeting with Croatian Mario Ancic, who ousted 16th seed Richard Gasquet of France 6-4, 7-6. Fourth seed Safin lost his focus in the second set but recovered to defeat British wild card Andy Murray 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, while sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko also advanced.
Juan Ignacio Chela gave Argentine fans something to cheer about when he dumped 12th seed Henman, who was struggling with a stomach injury, 6-4, 6-4.
But ninth seed Coria was beaten 6-4, 6-4 by Luis Horna of Peru, and 11th seed Nalbandian went down 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 to Chilean Fernando Gonzalez.
Henin-Hardenne Cruises After Serena Announces Withdrawal
In Toronto, Justin Henin-Hardenne eased into the third round of the Rogers Cup with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Mariana Diaz-Oliva on Wednesday, a few hours after Serena Williams had become the latest injury withdrawal on the WTA Tour. Seeded four, Belgium’s Henin-Hardenne played with her right hamstring wrapped in a bandage but it did not seem to hinder her movement as she had little difficulty overcoming the Argentine qualifier.
Earlier in the day, fifth-seeded Williams became the sixth top-20 player to withdraw from the tournament in the past week.
One day after defeating Stephanie Cohen-Aloro of France 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 in her second round match, Williams said an injured left knee had forced her out of the event, her first since Wimbledon.
In the main match of the evening, seventh-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium struggled early before dominating France’s Virginie Razzano 6-3, 6-0.
Also moving on was sixth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova, who was forced to dig deep to get past Bulgarian teenager Sesil Karatantcheva 4-6, 6-1, 6-4.
