|
Home>News Center>Sports | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Federer, Hewitt advance at Pacific Life
No. 1 Roger Federer and No. 2 Lleyton Hewitt won in straight sets Tuesday to advance in the Pacific Life Open.
Hewitt had a slightly more difficult time, beating Michael Llodra 6-2, 7-6 (3).
Taylor Dent upset Australian Open champion Marat Safin 7-5, 6-4 in their evening match. The 23-year-old Dent, ranked No. 32, also has wins over Hewitt and No. 9 David Nalbandian this year.
Dent was especially effective with his serve-and-volley game against the No. 4 Safin. Dent won 25 of 26 points when he got his first serve in.
He also made just 15 unforced errors to 21 by Safin, who ended the match with a double-fault.
Safin, a 25-year-old player from Moscow, was extremely frustrated.
"Just the worst match I ever played probably in my career," he said. "I didn't feel so bad on the court ever in my life. No matter what I would do, it just would not go my way.
"It's a terrible feeling."
Predictably, Dent was pleased with his play.
"I've learned how to compete a little bit better, learned how to hold myself together," he said. "My aspirations are to climb the rankings and compete for some of the biggest tournaments in the world."
On the women's side, 1997 and 2000 Indian Wells champion Lindsay Davenport advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-4 win over 16-year-old Ukrainian Viktoriya Kutuzova.
Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova survived a close call against Fabiola Zuluaga, pulling out a 4-6, 6-2, 7-5 victory.
Former No. 1 Kim Clijsters continued her comeback from a wrist injury by defeating Evgenia Linetskaya 6-2, 6-1 in their fourth-round match. No. 5 Elena Dementieva advanced with a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over Tatiana Golovin.
Federer, the men's defending champion, said he took his usual approach to the match against Muller — believing it was going to be a tough one.
"When I go into a match, that's what I think about, even though maybe I'm the big favorite and my opponent hasn't played many of the big matches on big courts around the world," Federer said.
Although Muller was no match for the 23-year-old Swiss star, the 21-year-old player from Luxembourg is on the rise. The left-hander vaulted from 189th to No. 68 in the rankings last year. He was the world's No. 1 junior in 2001.
Hewitt, the Indian Wells champion in 2002 and 2003, was knocked out in the third round by Juan Ignacio Chela last year. Hewitt has won 21 of the 26 matches he's played in the desert tournament. He was generally pleased with his play against Llodra. "The first set I was in total control, so there wasn't a whole heap of pressure serving out the first set," Hewitt said. "The second set, obviously I played a good tiebreak. He definitely picked up his game, though, in the second set."
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
