26/08/2010 09:09 CEST - New Heaven
Baghdatis continues fine form
Top seed Marcos Baghdatis overcame a sluggish start before defeating Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela to reach the quarterfinals of the Pilot Pen Open. In the women’s event, Dane Caroline Wozniacki also progressed to the final eight with a comfortable victory over Dominika Cibulkova. Mark Skendaris
ATP World Tour
After winning just two of the first eight games, Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis found his best form to oust world No. 50 Juan Ignacio Chela 1-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Wednesday at the Pilot Pen Open in New Haven.
Baghdatis lost all three of his service games in the first set, but bounced back by breaking Chela’s serve four times in the final two sets to record the win in one hour and 26 minutes.
The 27-year-old claimed afterwards he didn’t get much sleep the night before and had a bad morning, getting up earlier than he needed to, because he thought he had an earlier match.
“I was a bit tired, so I started the match like I started my day, basically,” he said. “But then, I found a solution to win. I fought the match. I stopped crying.”
The world No. 18 has now reached the quarterfinals in four of his five tournament appearances during the US Open Series, only failing to do so at the Rogers Cup in Toronto where he lost his first round match against Frenchman Jeremy Chardy.
His stellar run began in August with a runner-up finish in Washington to David Nalbandian and last week he reached the Cincinnati semifinals with wins over world No. 7 Tomas Berdych and No. 1 Rafael Nadal, before losing to eventual champion Roger Federer.
The Ukraine's seventh-seeded, Alexandr Dolgopolov downed American wildcard James Blake 6-4, 6-2. Blake, currently ranked 111th, now holds a tame 11-14 win/loss record for the season. The former world No. 4 will head to New York to begin his US Open campaign where he previously has been a two-time quarterfinalist.
The 30-year-old stated after his poor loss that he still feels he has some good tennis left in him.
“I’ve gotten almost everything in my life through working as hard as I can and putting my head down and hoping for the best, and that’s what I’ve got to do now,” he said. “It’s tougher and tougher as the results aren’t coming.”
Australian world No. 120 Peter Luczak also fell in the second round, succumbing to Sergiy Stakhovsky of the Ukraine 2-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(1).
WTA Tour
Caroline Wozniacki reached the quarterfinals in New Haven by breezing past Slovak Dominika Cibulkova 6-4, 6-1 in one hour and 21 minutes.
Wozniacki got off to slow start though, and was down 4-3 in the first set. In between games, she got some treatment for a stiff back and responded by giving up just two points the rest of the set.
“I was telling myself, ‘I want to play, move your feet, come on let’s go,”’ Wozniacki said. “We don’t want to play three sets of course, I want to win in two.”
The world No. 2 defeated Cibulkova for the fourth time in five meetings to continue her hot form leading into the US Open next week.
The 20-year-old will be the tournament top seed after the surprise withdrawal of world No.1 Serena Williams. Her next opponent will be Italian Flavia Pennetta who coasted past Bulgarian Olga Govortsova, 6-3, 6-2.
“I didn't play my best, but I was consistent and didn't make many mistakes,” Pennetta said. “I'm happy to be through to the next round.”
Russian eighth seed Nadia Petrova had an identical 6-3, 6-2 victory over American qualifier Bethanie Mattek-Sands.
“The conditions were great today,” said Petrova, who next faces Australian second seed Samantha Stosur. “Sam didn't play for a few weeks so she may be a little rusty. If I'm able to play the same as today, I can have a positive outcome. It's a great opportunity for me.”
Elena Dementieva, seeded fourth, booked her place in the New Haven quarters by outlasting Kateryna Bondarenko of the Ukraine 7-6(4), 6-7(5), 6-4.
The Russian baseliner edged the first set and was two points away from winning the second, but Bondarenko battled back, taking the second tie-breaker and found herself 2-0 up in the third. However, Dementieva found her form and completed the tough win in just over three hours.
“It was a great fight. She is very difficult to play as she is very solid from the baseline,” said Dementieva. “It was a long, physical game, but I had to hang in and find a way to win. I just want to play as many matches as I can.”
Next up for Dementieva will be the sixth seed Marion Bartoli, who cruised past Australian qualifier Anastasia Rodionova, 6-3, 6-1.
Mark Skendaris
"It was nice, I mean, except that 99.9 percent of the people were against me."
Sergiy Stakhovsky, on the atmosphere for his match on the Grandstand against Ryan Harrison.
September the 4th, 1959
Sixteen-year-old Arthur Ashe makes his debut at the U.S. Championships and loses to 21-year-old Rod Laver, 6-2 7-5 6-2, in the first round.
From "On this day in Tennis History" by Randy Walker
