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Roger Federer, Juan Martin Del Potro and Andy Murray were all made to work (not necessarily very hard) to advance to the quarterfinal of the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open on Thursday. Also advancing were World No.1 Rafael Nadal and No.6 seed Andy Roddick, both without having to hit a ball. The top seven players in the draw have all made the quarterfinals to setup what should be a truly exciting weekend of action in Madrid.

Federer, the No.2 seed and former champion, got some vengeance against one of his favourite opponents, American James Blake, avenging his Beijing Olympic loss in just over an hour, 6-2, 6-4. Federer will next meet another American Andy Roddick, who benefited from the withdrawal of no. 10 seed Nikola y Davydenko due to an injured left leg.

Federer has played Roddick on 19 previous occasions, but surprisingly never on clay! Not surprisingly Roger dominates their head-to-head record 17-2.

Federer said he was happy with his win today. "It was not the same quality of tennis as our last match (in Beijing) and I think James struggled with the conditions today but from my side I felt comfortable," he said.

"James goes for his shots so it makes it easier to ace him if you serve near the lines compared to someone who maybe just tries to get the ball back into the court."

No. 6 seed Juan Martin Del Potro was stretched the most amongst the top players, dropping the first set to Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 6-4, before winning the next two by an identical score. His victory sets up a mouth watering clash with defending champion Scotland's Andy Murray, who struggled a bit in the first set on his way to beating Spanish Davis Cupper Tommy Robredo 7-5, 6-1.

After the match Murray, who won this tournament on hard courts last year, felt that he is still to come to complete grips with the conditions. "The win was good but the conditions were very tricky, the court at the end of the first set was really dry and it was really difficult to move. There was quite a strong breeze from one of the ends, but I didn't give him too many opportunities in the first set. I was still waiting for him to miss and I need to learn that if I'm not taking my chances because I am playing too aggressively or too defensively that I need to change what I am doing. Your timing needs to be spot on here and you need to use enough spin to keep the ball in but I think I've dealt with it pretty well here so far."

All this while World No.1 Rafael Nadal hung up his boots and watched the action as his opponent Philipp Kohlschreiber withdrew from the tournament nursing an injured his left foot. Nadal will return to the court on Friday to take on fellow Spaniard who beat Argentine Wild Card Juan Monaco in straight sets 7-5, 6-2.

The tournament almost made it eight out of eight as the 8th seed Gilles Simon failed to keep his end of the bargain falling to another Wild Card, Croatian Ivan Ljubicic in three tough sets 6-3, 4-6, 3-6. Ljubicic will next meet world no. 4 Novak Djokovic who coasted past Italian Andrea Seppi 6-4, 6-4.

 

On the women's side of a severely depleted draw, Dinara Safina and Jelena Jankovic are the only two big names left after a series of upsets this whole week has given another bunch of youngsters the chance to shine.

World No. 1 Safina destroyed Lucie Safarova 6-0 in the opening set before going walk-about in the second, dropping it 6-4. She rallied back however to win the final set 6-3 to set up a quarterfinal clash with Alona Bondarenko.

Bondarenko,a victor over red-hot Svetlana Kuznetsova in the second round, edged past Anna Chakvetadze 6-0, 2-6, 6-3. Bondarenko has beaten Safina in their only previous meeting.

"I started like I should have, aggressively. But suddenly after winning the first set I stopped and gave everything to her hands," Safina said. "I´m disappointed how I played the second and third sets. It was 0-2 and luckily she made a couple mistakes that gave me a chance to come back, but that's not really the way I try to win. I can take positives from the first set and hopefully tomorrow I can play two sets like that."

The other quarterfinal in the top half of the draw pits No.4 seed Jelena Jankovic against Patty Schnyder. Jankovic eased past Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-2 while Schnyder upset no. 8 seed Nadia Petrova on Wednesday.

It was mixed news for Indian fans on Thursday with the doubles pairing of Sania Mirza & Chia-Jung Chuang entering the semi-finals of Madrid Open after the Ruso-Belarusian duo of Elena Vesnina and Victoria Azarenka had to withdraw from their match early in the first set due to a left knee injury to Azarenka.

Mirza and Chuang will play the Czech-American pair of Peschke and Raymond for a place in Sunday's final, a team they know all too well, having beaten them in the final of the MPS Group Championship in early April.

In the men's doubles, Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy were also forced to pull out of the event, due to an illness to Dlouhy.

Results:

Men's Singles - Third Round
[1] R Nadal (ESP) d P Kohlschreiber (GER) W/O
[2] R Federer (SUI) d [14] J Blake (USA) 62 64
[3] N Djokovic (SRB) d A Seppi (ITA) 64 64
[4] A Murray (GBR) d [16] T Robredo (ESP) 75 61
[5] J Del Potro (ARG) d [11] S Wawrinka (SUI) 46 64 64
[6] A Roddick (USA) d [10] N Davydenko (RUS) W/O
[7] F Verdasco (ESP) d [WC] J Monaco (ARG) 75 62
[WC] I Ljubicic (CRO) d [8] G Simon (FRA) 36 64 63

Women's Singles - Third Round
(1) Dinara Safina (RUS) d. Lucie Safarova (CZE) 60 46 63
(4) Jelena Jankovic (SRB) d. (Q) Elena Vesnina (RUS) 62 62
Agnes Szavay (HUN) d. (7) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) 46 62 62
(9) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) d. Alisa Kleybanova (RUS) 62 62
Alona Bondarenko (UKR) d. Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) 60 26 63

File Photograph Copyright: Constantini