Federer holds off Monaco at Miami ATP

Roger Federer

Roger Federer fought through a tough first set and turned it on in the second to beat Juan Monaco 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 as the Swiss player clocked his 20th win of the season to advance at the Miami ATP Masters 1000.

The third seed, who won the event at Crandon Park twice, improved his record for the season to 20-3 in a campaign dominated so far by the 20-match win streak of second-seeded rival Novak Djokovic.

Top seed Rafael Nadal followed suit as he beat fellow Spaniard Feliciano Lopez for the seventh time in nine meetings, taking a 6-3, 6-3 victory.

Federer’s clean and clinical third-round victory on Monday over the Argentine in just 1 hour and 45 minutes, improved his overall Miami record to 38-10.

“It was tough not having played him very often,” said the Federer. “This is as slow as it gets out on the hard court. It’s a bit of clay almost except that you can’t slide.

“I thought he played well in the later stages of the first set and then also in the second. I had a return game, which worked well, and was able to serve it out. So it was a good finish for me.”

Federer will next play longtime friend Olivier Rochus, a winner over Russian Mikhail Youzhny 1-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Seventh-seeded Wimbledon finalist Tomas Berdych beat Argentine Carlos Berlocq 7-6 (10/8), 7-5. Janko Tipsarevic of Serbia beat German Philipp Petzschner 6-3, 6-3 in their third-round contest.

In women’s play, Caroline Wozniacki’s dream of a coast-to-coast title double hit the wall as the top seed was upset 7-5, 3-6, 6-3 by Germany’s colorful Andrea Petkovic.

The winner, already an Internet, YouTube and Twitter personality thanks to her prodigious use of social media, performed a snippet of her “Petko” victory dance after the upset.

“It was not like I played unbelievable,” said the German. “It was more that I was able to stick to my game plan and I was playing clever. That was the key to the match.”

Petkovic, ranked 23rd and who made a quarterfinal run at the Australian Open, needed an hour to win the opening set against Wozniacki, who claimed the Indian Wells Masters in California eight days ago and had been bidding to repeat that in Florida.

Petkovic went up 4-2 in the third set on a break and three games later was into the quarterfinals after firing her third ace of the afternoon on match point. She faced 17 break points but saved 12 of them against the world number one Dane.

Pole Agnieszka Radwanska crushed Roland Garros winner Francesca Schiavone, wining the first eight games in a 6-0, 6-2 hammering of the Italian. Sixth seed Jelena Jankovic beat Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 6-3.

16th seed Russian, Maria Sharapova also took out a leading seed as she beat Australia’s French Open finalist Samantha Stosur 6-4, 6-1.

The Australian who lost the Roland Garros final last year to Francesca Schiavone suffered with five double-faults and no aces in a contest lasting 81 minutes.

“I have a good record against her, but it’s not something that you typically look at going into the match,” said Sharapova, who has missed months of tennis over the past few seasons with a shoulder injury that eventually required surgery. “I know that she’s a very tough player.”

Sharapova produced her best result so far this year at Indian Wells this month in what was her first semifinal since last August.

Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru beat China’s Peng Shuai 6-3, 6-4.

AFP