Tennis aces Djokovic, Murray advance in Miami

Tuesday, March 31, 2009 at 9:25 PM Posted by Beijing News


British fourth seed Andy Murray and Serbian third seed Novak Djokovic breezed into the quarter-finals of the ATP and WTA hardcourt tournament here on Tuesday with straight-set triumphs.

Murray routed Serbian Viktor Troicki 6-1, 6-0 while Djokovic took a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Czech Tomas Berdych.

Scotsman Murray took only 58 minutes to book a place in the final eight, where he will face eighth-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, who bounced Czech 18th seed Radek Stepanek 6-2, 6-2.

"I didn't make a lot of mistakes, high percentage of first serves, used my slice well - just kept thinking all the way through the match," Murray said.

"Right from the start, to get a break early, set the tone for the rest of the match. He didn't really recover from that."

Russian eighth seed Svetlana Kuzentsova became the first semi-finalist in the women's draw by beating Danish 13th seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 6-7 5/7, 6-1.

Next for Kuznetsova will be either Russian 11th seed Victoria Azarenka or Australian Samantha Stosur, who earlier ousted second-ranked Russian Dinara Safina.

Djokovic, who won the Miami crown in 2007, pounced upon Berdych's every mistake to advance.

"I was trying to stick with him all the time, because I knew he's very aggressive, but not really consistent from the baseline," Djokovic said.

"He makes a lot of unforced errors, especially from the forehand side, so I changed the pace and I played a really good tennis."

Djokovic will next face French 10th seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who eliminated seventh-seeded countryman Gilles Simon 6-7 4/7, 6-3, 6-2 in another fourth-round match.

Tsonga, who felt slightly ill before the match, is the first Frenchman in a decade to reach the quarter-finals at Miami. And Djokovic knows he is in for a fight.

"I lost to Tsonga four times in a row, so he has a little advantage probably there," Djokovic said. "But I think all the matches we played were very close so it's going to be a challenge for me to win."

Later fourth-round men's matches in the nine million-dollar event find Swiss world number two Roger Federer facing American Taylor Dent and US fifth seed Andy Roddick playing French ninth seed Gael Monfils.







giant advertisement in Tokyo. AP/Katsumi Kasahara

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