The Hindu : Sport : Fish, Safina cruise into the last eight

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Fish, Safina cruise into the last eight

Bhupathi-Knowles pair exits; Djokovic passes the Cilic test

— Photo: AP

GOING IS GOOD: Mardy Fish came up with a good performance on Monday to advance to his maiden U.S. Open singles quarterfinals.

NEW YORK: American Mardy Fish matched his deepest run in any Grand Slam tournament by reaching the U.S. Open quarterfinals with a 7-5, 6-2, 6-2 victory over France’s Gael Monfils on Monday.

Fish had never been past the second round in eight prior Flushing Meadows appearances but continued a dream run on his father Tom’s birthday by spoiling the 22nd birthday of Monfils.

“I’ve desperately wanted to play well here. It felt like I had come here and lost in the second round every single year,” Fish said. “I’m glad to be moving on.”

Fish broke Monfils in the last game of the first set and on the Frenchman’s first service game of the second set to seize command of the match. Monfils had a trainer tape his right leg just below the knee after trailing 3-0 in set two.

“I knew I had to be aggressive. He runs down a lot of balls,” Fish said. “He may be one of the best athletes to play this game.”

Fish, 26, was a runner-up last week at New Haven.

Dinara Safina’s pursuit of a maiden Grand Slam title gathered momentum when she defeated German qualifier Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-5 6-0 to reach the quarterfinals. The Russian sixth seed has reached six finals in her last seven tournaments.

Groenefeld tried her best to rattle Safina when she stormed back from 4-2 down in the opening set to level at 5-5.

But that ended up being the last game the 141st ranked Groenefeld won as Safina pounded down a string of sizzling groundstrokes to win in 75 minutes.

In men’s doubles action, India’s Mahesh Bhupathi and Mark Knowles were knocked out in the third round by the Argentinean pairing of Maximo Gonzalez and Juan Monaco. The fourth-seeded Indian-Bahamas combine lost 2-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Long battle

Meanwhile on Sunday, Novak Djokovic illuminated New York’s midnight hour with an electrifying performance, surviving a 234-minute battle to reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open.

The Serbian third seed soaked up the full force of Marin Cilic’s armoury to stay in the hunt for the title with an absorbing 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(0) victory in a contest that ended at 12.48 a.m. local time.

The 21-year-old squandered two match points in the 10th game of the fourth set but roared through the last 11 points of the encounter and sealed the win when Cilic dragged a service return wide.

Asked on court how he was feeling, the Australian Open champion replied: “You’re asking me how I’m doing after a four-hour match. Not fresh, for sure.

“Thanks everybody for staying so late for us. I had a very, very difficult match and even if I had lost today, he would have deserved it. He played great,” he added.

Djokovic discovered he was in for a long night when, set point up in the opening set, he was made to scamper around like a demented bunny only to lose a 31-shot rally.

Cilic (19) kept up the intensity throughout but eventually was undone by his lack of experience, cracking down 12 double faults to undo all the hard work.

Smooth ride

While Djokovic kept the midnight oil burning, Roger Federer enjoyed an early night with a relatively smooth progress during the day session.

After a week of lukewarm performances, four-time champion Federer turned on the heat with a masterful 6-3, 6-3, 6-2 destruction of Czech 28th seed Radek Stepanek.

After toying with Stepanek for 96 minutes, Federer threaded a forehand down the line to seal victory and celebrated by punching the air and holding aloft his index finger, as if to remind people “I’m still the No. 1 in New York.”

“At the end of the day, what counts is winning the tournament. You forget all the unforced errors you made,” said Federer, whose cloak of invincibility has been looking rather threadbare recently following his defeats in the French Open and Wimbledon finals by Rafael Nadal. “If I were to win one of those slams rightaway, I have the invincibility factor again. I don’t try to impress anybody in the early rounds,” said the 27-year-old, who has also surrendered his No. 1 status to Nadal.

Federer chalked up his 30th consecutive victory here to set up a meeting with Russia’s Igor Andreev.

As temperatures soared on day seven of the hard-court major, an ailing Marion Bartoli said it was a “miracle” she could battle on for more than three hours in the stifling conditions. She eventually fell 7-6(3), 0-6, 6-4 to Austrian Sybille Bammer.

Ruthless

Olympic champion Elena Dementieva, continued to slice through the draw with a ruthless 6-4, 6-1 win over China’s Li Na. — Agencies

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