Nadal moves on at US Open, Murray goes home after shock defeat

NEW YORK: World number one Rafael Nadal swept into the last-16 at the US Open, but Andy Murray’s campaign came to a halt. Nadal swept past Gilles Simon of France 6-4, 6-4, 6-2 as Spanish players dominated the top half of the draw, filling five out of eight places through into the fourth round.

Nadal opened strongly, breaking in the third game on the way to stacking up a 3-1 lead and that was all he needed as he took the opener 6-4 in 47 minutes. Simon held his own against the eight-time Grand Slam winner until 3-3 in the second set, but the weight of Nadal’s huge forehands gradually took its toll on him and he conceded serve in the seventh game. Again, that was all the margin needed by the Spaniard as he served out twice to take a 2-0 lead. Nadal was now firing on all cylinders and a break of serve in the opening game of the third set doomed any realistic hopes Simon may have harboured of making an unlikely comeback.

Murray overpowered

Murray was touted as the main threat to five-time former champion Roger Federer and Nadal following his back-to-back wins over them at the Toronto Masters last month. But after pocketing the first set in a tie-breaker against Switzerland’s Stanislas Wawrinka, the fourth seed’s game unravelled through a mixture of injury, frustration and his opponent’s fine play.

Wawrinka, who struggled with a thigh injury himself, eventually ran out an upset 6-7 (3/7), 7-6 (7/4), 6-3, 6-3 winner and Murray was downcast after the crushing loss. “In the third and fourth sets I was struggling physically and I got frustrated with that,” said the 23-year-old Scot.

Spanish eighth-seed Fernando Verdasco blasted past Argentina’s David Nalbandian 6-2, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 and Sam Querrey, meanwhile, boosted US hopes by mastering another Spaniard, 14th-seed Nicolas Almagro, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Venus cruises to quarter-finals

Third-seed Venus Williams booked a date with French Open champion Francesca Schiavone for a semi-final spot. Williams downed Israeli 16th-seed Shahar Peer 7-6 (7/3), 6-3. The seven-time Grand Slam champion and two-time US Open winner will carry a 7-0 career edge against Schiavone into their matchup.

“Her game is better than ever now,” Williams said. “I’m hoping my experience will help me like it did today.”

Williams and Peer each missed on five game points in a marathon 12th game before Peer held to force a tie-breaker, but Williams grabbed a 5-1 lead in it and took the first set, then broke three times in the second for the victory.

“Winning the first set always feels good,” said Williams. “Instead of regrouping and figuring out how you are going to win the match, you can focus on trying to win it in the second set.”

Stosur follows Venus after beating Turnbull

French Open runner-up Samantha Stosur, who became the first Australian woman in the US Open quarter-finals since Wendy Turnbull in 1986 by defeating Russian 12th-seed Elena Dementieva 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7/2).

Fifth-seed Stosur saved four match points to win the latest-ending women’s match in US Open history, six minutes beyond the old mark set in 1987 but still 50 minutes off the all-time men’s latest Open night in New York.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 7^th, 2010.