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Fedex cruises, Nadal struggles
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SportsDesk on 15 May, 2008 12:30:58
 
Hamburg: Both Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic cruised into the third round of
the Hamburg Masters Series here on Wednesday while clay court king Rafael Nadal
struggled through.
Nadal, world no. 2, needed more than two hours to make the last 16 before he
claimed a 6-4, 7-6 (8-6) win over Italy’s Potito Starace.
Having made an early exit in Rome last week, again Nadal did not have things
his own way here and had to save a set point on the second set before winning
the tie-break.
But third seed and Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic, who is closing in
on Nadal’s World No. 2 status, wasted no time in blasting his way past
Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-1.
And Swiss master Federer needed less than an hour to see off Finland’s Jarkko
Nieminen 6-1, 6-3 and in the 18 sets the pair have now contested, during their
nine previous matches, Nieminen has yet to win a single one.
Seventh seed James Blake was knocked out 4-6, 6-3, 6-3 by Serbia’s Janko
Tipsarevic and 13th-seed Tommy Robredo also crashed out to Croatia’s Ivo
Karlovic after losing 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3).
And Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, the 14th seed, made a sharp exit when he went
down in straight sets 6-2, 7-5 to Sweden’s Robin Soderling. But former world
no. 1 Marat Safin continued his comeback with a straight-sets win over
ninth-seed Tomas Berdych in the second round.
Safin has plummeted down the rankings to 89th after suffering a series of
injuries, but hit four aces on his way to knocking out Berdych, 11th in the
world, 7-5, 6-4 in 90 minutes.
The Russian will play Moya in the third round after the Spaniard’s 7-5, 6-3
win over Belgium’s Olivier Rochus. (AFP)