TheSportsCampus

< Prev		Next >

Roger Federer and Andy Murray led a host of seeded men into the third round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open. The Madrid Open is one of the few remaining stops on the tennis circuit other than the Grand Slams where the men and women are in action in the same week. On the women's side of the tournament, one of its leading ladies Venus Williams was shown the door by Russian teenager Alisa Kleybanova while Jelena Jankovic and Amelie Mauresmo advanced to the next round.

World No. 2 Roger Federer got off to the perfect start in Madrid, wrapping up the first set against Sweden's Robin Soderling 6-1 in just 20 minutes. Soderling fought back in the second and was up a break early on before Federer broke back in the 7th and 11th games to seal the victory in a little over an hour. Final score: 6-1, 7-5.

Federer will next meet the winner of the match between American James Blake and Croatia's Ivo Karlovic, who go head-to-head in second-round action on Wednesday.

Also in Federer's half of the draw is defending champion Andy Murray who though he is seeded 4th at this tournament has just overtaken Serbia's Novak Djokovic in the ATP World Rankings. He is ofcourse defending 1000 ranking points at this event, and a failure to repeat his triumph from last year could well hand over third spot straight back to Djokovic.

Murray cleared his first hurdle in his title defence beating a tough competitor in Italian Simone Bolelli 7-6(9), 6-4 in a shade over two hours. In the third round Murray will take on local favourite 16th seed Tommy Robredo.

Speaking about his opponent, whom he has lost to twice in their last three meetings, the Scotsman said, "He is one of the top ten clay court players, for sure. He won a couple of tournaments on clay in South America and he is playing at home so he´s going to have good support but it´ll be a very good test for me but hopefully I can play like I did tonight and give myself a good chance."

Also making it to the third round were 7th seed Fernando Verdasco and Ivan Ljubicic, who upset 9th seeded Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 6-4, 7-5.

World no. 1 Rafael Nadal, No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic, No. 5 Juan Martin del Potro, No. 6 Andy Roddick and No. 8 Gilles Simon are all in second round action on Wednesday.

In the Women's Singles, new world no. 3 Venus Williams celebrated her accession up the rankings in the worst possible way crashing out in the 2nd round at the hands of Russian rising star Alisa Kleybanova in three tight sets 3-6, 6-3, 5-7.

Earlier in the week her younger sister Serena retired from her match with Francesca Schiavone after dropping the first set due to a leg injury. The departure of the Williams sisters throws the bottom quarter of the draw wide open, with Danish youngster Caroline Wozniacki the sole surviving seed left.

The same half of the draw has some other intriguing battles with 3rd seed Elena Dementieva taking on Amelie Mauresmo in the third round. Former world No.1 Amelie Mauresmo beat No.15 seed Jie Zheng of China in straight sets 6-2 7-5. Mauresmo has beaten Dementieva on 9 of the 15 occasions that they have competed against one another.

In the top half 4th seed Jelena Jankovic beat Daniela Hantuchova 7-5, 6-2 to book a third round meeting with Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina. Hantuchova broke twice in the first set of the match, serving for it at 5-3 but failed to take advantage of her chances.

World No. 1 Dinara Safina fresh off her victory in Rome last week will play Na Li of China in the second round on Wednesday.

 

File Photograph Copyright: Constantini