No. 16 seed David Ferrer advanced to the quarterfinals for the second consecutive year as he beat No. 3 seed and defending champion Andy Roddick 7-6(4), 6-4.
Ferrer became the third Spaniard on the day to reach the quarterfinals, following Nicolas Almagro and Carlos Moya. Last year's finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero could become the fourth Spaniard to reach the quarters if he defeats James Blake on Thursday night. Last year a tournament record four Spaniards advanced to the quarterfinals.
Ferrer won his career-best 44th match of the season (20-7 on hard) and he matched Roddick with nine aces. Ferrer is now 2-2 lifetime against Roddick.
Roddick had three set points at 4-5 in the opening set but Ferrer escaped and never trailed in the tie-break, going up 3-0 before hanging on to win 7-4. In the second set both players held throughout until Ferrer took advantage of his lone break point in the 10th game to post his fourth Top 10 victory of the year (4-4).
Ferrer will take on the winner of No. 5 Nikolay Davydenko and No. 10 Tomas Berdych in his fourth ATP Masters Series quarterfinal of the season.
James Blake set an all-American quarterfinal with Sam Querrey after blitzing Spaniard and 2006 finalist Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1, 6-4. Blake did not face a break point and has not dropped serve in his past two matches.
World No. 1 and 2005 champion Roger Federer saved four first set points in his 7-6(5), 7-5 win over Marcos Baghdatis, lifting his career mark to 5-0 against the Cypriot. Federer converted three of five break points and saved nine of 11 break points he faced. The Swiss superstar also benefitted from nine Baghdatis double faults.
Federer will be making his second appearance in the quarterfinals in seven Cincinnati visits against Almagro.
Wild card Sam Querrey advanced to his first career ATP Masters Series quarterfinal with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Juan Monaco. The 19-year-old American fired 10 aces and broke the Argentine in the sixth game of the opening set and 11th game of the second set. He will face the winner of Ferrero and Blake on Friday.
Moya defeated fast-rising Argentine Juan Martin del Potro 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 Thursday to set a quarterfinal meeting with fellow former World No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt. Moya hit 17 aces against del Potro, tying his season-high (vs Henman at Wimbledon).
Moya, who recently won his 20th career title in Umag, is the oldest member of the Top 20 and said after his second-round win over Montreal champion Novak Djokovic that he believed he could return to the Top 10, despite being just two weeks shy of his 31st birthday. Moya, the 2002 Cincinnati champion, has a 38-17 record (13-6 on hard) on the season.
Currently No. 18 in the ATP Rankings, former World No. 1 Moya last appeared in the Top 10 in in the first week of May 2005.
Moya trails Hewitt 5-6 in career meetings (losing the last four) but at one stage he had the Australian's number. In 2002, when Hewitt held the No. 1 ranking for half the year, Moya won all four meetings, including a tight straight-sets win in Cincinnati, when he continued on to win the title.
Moya has three ATP Masters Series titles (’98 Monte-Carlo, ’02 Cincinnati, ’04 Rome) and three runner-up finishes (’99 Indian Wells, ’02 Monte-Carlo, ’03 Miami). He has advanced to the quarterfinals (or better) in seven of the nine AMS tournaments (except Canada, Madrid).
Hewitt, a two-time Cincinnati finalist, moved to within one victory of a fifth semifinal here after taking out Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-3.
Almagro, who had won just four of 20 career hard court matches before this week, surged into the quarterfinals with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Finn Jarkko Nieminen. Almagro has only been broken once in three matches and today saved the lone break point he faced. In the quarterfinals he will play the winner of Roger Federer and Marcos Baghdatis.
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