The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Rusedski enters quarterfinals

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Friday, Jul 16, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Rusedski enters quarterfinals

LOS ANGELES, JULY 15. Britain's Greg Rusedski, Germany's Nicolas Kiefer, American Mardy Fish, and Cyril Saulnier of France advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mercedes-Benz Cup tennis tournament on Wednesday.

Rusedski ran his winning streak to seven matches with a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2) victory over Karol Beck of Slovakia.

Kiefer beat qualifier Glenn Weiner of the United States, 6-4, 7-5, and Saulnier eliminated Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3.

No. 3 Fish, the only seeded player on court, ended the session by beating Gilles Elseneer of Belgium 6-2, 3-6, 6-3 in the tournament at UCLA.

Rusedski, who won last week's Hall of Fame Championships at Newport, Rhode Island, had upset seventh-seeded Taylor Dent in the first round.

In the third set, Rusedski had to fight off three break points to pull even at 4-4. Then, after both held serve to 6-all, Rusedski got off to a 3-0 lead on a double fault by Beck and two aces to take control of the tiebreaker.

French Open champion Gaston Gaudio rallied to defeat American qualifier Hugo Armando 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(5) when their second-round match was completed on Thursday at the Mercedes Cup ATP clay-court tournament at Stuttgart.

The match was suspended due to darkness on Wednesday at one set apiece.

Gaudio dropped his serve when the match resumed. He held serve to stay alive at 5-4 and then broke Armando's serve to tie the score at 5-5 and turn the match into his favour.

Gaudio is seeded second and is the top-ranked player remaining in the field after Wednesday's elimination of No. 1 Rainer Schuettler.

No. 12 Albert Costa, the 2002 French Open champion, beat No. 8 Mariano Zabaleta 7-5, 7-6(4) to reach the quarterfinals. Zabaleta was coming off his second straight Swedish Open title, which he won Monday in Bastad by beating Gaudio.

Venus advances

Venus Williams beat fellow American Lindsay Lee-Waters, 6-1, 6-1 advancing to the quarterfinals of the WTA Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.

The top seed here and one of four recipients of a first-round bye, Williams was shocked by Croatian Karolina Sprem in the second round of Wimbledon, her earliest exit at the All-England Club since her debut in 1997 when she lost in the first round.

But Williams wasted little time in this one yesterday, taking just 51 minutes to move on to the round of eight, where she will meet fifth seed Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi.

The Israeli rallied to defeat Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja, 3-6, 7-5, 6-2, and will face Williams.

In other second-round matches, eighth seed Maria Vento-Kabchi of Venezuela routed German Anca Barna, 6-2, 6-2, and Mashona Washington beat fellow American Marissa Irvin, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

The results:

At Los Angeles (Mercedes-Benz Cup): Second round: Greg Rusedski bt Karol Beck 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(2); Nicolas Kiefer bt Glenn Weiner 6-4, 7-5; Cyril Saulnier bt Jan Hernych 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3; Mardy Fish bt Gilles Elseneer 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

At Stuttgart (Mercedes Cup): Third round: Albert Costa bt Mariano Zabaleta 7-5, 7-6(4); Nikolay Davydenko bt Andrei Pavel 7-5, 1-6, 6-4; Radek Stepanek bt Ivo Karlovic 6-2, 7-5; Jiri Novak bt Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (4), 4-6, 6-1.

Second round: Gaston Gaudio bt Hugo Armando 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(5). Mikhail Youzhny bt Alexander Popp 6-3, 7-6(7); Albert Costa bt Felix Mantilla 7-5, 6-4; Rafael Nadal bt Martin Vassallo Arguello 7-6(4), 6-4; Radek Stepanek bt Rainer Schuettler 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-2; Tomas Berdych bt Bjoern Phau 6-2, 6-3; Ivo Karlovic bt Franco Squillari 6-3, 7-6(0); Mariano Zabaleta bt Marc Lopez 7-6(2) 6-2.

At Amersfoort (Dutch Open): Second round: Igor Andreev bt Christophe Rochus 4-6, 6-2, 6-1; Fernando Gonzalez bt Oscar Hernandez 7-5, 6-3.

At Stanford (Bank of the West Classic): Second round: Venus Williams bt Lindsay Lee-Waters 6-1, 6-1; Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi bt Arantxa Parra Santonja 3-6, 7-5, 6-2; Maria Vento-Kabchi bt Anca Barna 6-2, 6-2; Mashona Washington bt Marissa Irvin 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

First round: Jelena Kostanic bt Ashley Harkleroad 7-5, 4-6, 6-1; Nicole Pratt bt Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 6-3. — Agencies

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