The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Roddick, Ferrero set up title clash

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Aug 21, 2006

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Roddick, Ferrero set up title clash

MASON: Former World number ones Andy Roddick and Juan Carlos Ferrero reached the Western and Southern Financial Group Masters tennis final with convincing semifinal victories.

Ferrero eased past fellow Spaniard Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4 and Roddick outgunned Chilean 13th seed Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-3 to set up a repeat of the 2003 U.S. Open final won by the American.

"It's a great feeling," Ferrero, who has not won a title since the Madrid Masters in October 2003, told reporters.

"I had confidence that I could win this match but maybe not in two sets. It was a little bit easier than I thought because Tommy is playing pretty good and won yesterday a very good match against (Ivan) Ljubicic."

After winning the French Open and reaching the U.S. Open in 2003, Ferrero climbed to the top of the World rankings, but he was hit by illness and injury and slid to 98th in February last year.

Since then he has steadily worked his way back and by beating James Blake, Rafael Nadal and Robredo to reach the final, the 26-year-old will move inside the top 20 when the new rankings are released.

"I went so down in the rankings and it is very tough to come back because you always play seeded players in the first rounds," he said.

"You work so hard and week by week you are not getting that result, so you think that it never is going to come.

"But I've been very, very positive in the last three or four months to get the results."

Roddick looked close to his best as he dominated Gonzalez in the night session, breaking the Chilean in the opening game of the match and making another break to clinch the set.

Gonzalez, appearing in his third Masters Series semifinals of 2006, upped his game in the second set, but double-faulted to hand Roddick the break in the eighth game and the American served out to love for victory.

Roddick's fall from the top was not as steep as Ferrero's, but early exits at the first three Grand Slams of 2006 left him outside the top 10.

"He's been playing up on the baseline and kind of moving people around. I've kind of been trying to do the same thing so it should be interesting."

Paes-Damm lose

Meanwhile, Leander Paes and Martin Damm of Czech Republic were unable to stretch themselves against second seeds Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden and Belarus's Max Mirnyi and bowed out of the doubles semifinals.

The seventh seeded Indo-Czech pair lost 6-7(3), 2-6 on Saturday.

After a hard-fought first set, which went into the tie-breaker, Paes and Damm were not able to put up much resistance in the second.

The doubles final will be a showdown between the top two pairs as Bjorkman and Mirnyi take on No.1 seeds Bryan brothers - Bob and Mike.

The Bryan brothers defeated the sixth-seeded Israeli combination of Jonathan Erlich and Andy Ram 7-6(4), 6-3 in the other semifinal.

Hingis reaches final

Former World No.1 Martina Hingis reached the final of the injury-hit Montreal Cup when Russian Anna Chakvetadze was forced to retire in the second set.

Hingis won the first set 6-3 and was leading 3-1 in the second when the unseeded Chakvetadze pulled out with an arm injury on Saturday.

The results (all semifinals): At Mason (ATP Masters): Juan Carlos Ferrero bt Tommy Robredo 6-3, 6-4; Andy Roddick bt Fernando Gonzalez 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles: Bob/ Mike Bryan bt Jonathan Erlich/ Andy Ram 7-6(4), 6-3; Jonas Bjorkman/ Max Mirnyi bt Martin Damm/ Leander Paes 7-6(3), 6-2.

At Montreal: (WTA Rogers Cup): Martina Hingis bt Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 3-1 (retired); Ana Ivanovic leads Dinara Safina 6-1, 3-4 (play suspended by rain, to resume on Sunday). — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport