Less Than Famous Seeds Come To The Forefront At Rogers Cup
Posted July 25, 2008 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Another shocker at the Rogers Cup, another player who wasn’t shocked.
Defending champion Novak Djokovic was the latest casualty of a dangerous field at the $2.6-million tournament Friday — he was knocked off by Britain’s Andy Murray 6-3, 7-6 (3) — and afterwards spoke calmly of the growing parity in men’s tennis.
“It’s not easy. You have to try to be as consistent as much as you can if you want to stay at the top,” he said. “You have players like Andy, still young and up and coming. …
“Now there’s a lot of great players, and everybody is working hard to get to the top.”
Djokovic was the sixth of the top seven seeds to lose before the semifinals. Seventh-seeded American James Blake dropped a 6-1, 6-2 decision to Germany’s Nicolas Kiefer earlier Friday, and he lasted longer than Roger Federer, Nikolay Davydenko, David Ferrer and Andy Roddick.
Rafael Nadal, the second-seeded Spaniard who played 10th seeded Frenchman Richard Gasquet later Friday, said it shouldn’t be such a surprise when the top players lose.
“You guys, I think you really don’t know how tough (it) is (to) play Miami, Davis Cup, Monte Carlo, Rome, Barcelona, Hamburg, Roland Garros, Halle or Queen’s the next week after Wimbledon,” he said.
“So, a lot of the matches and a lot of tournaments, well, without a stop. … So you don’t know how tough (it) is be another time 100 per cent in one week, one week and a half.”
Added Djokovic: “The top players are usually getting to the final stages of … 90 per cent of the events they play. This was the case with Roger, Rafa and myself in the last year and a half.”
Murray, seeded eighth, looked dialled in from the beginning, dominating Djokovic in the first set and holding him off in the second, when Djokovic sporadically worked up some momentum.
Murray moved beautifully Friday, chasing down loose balls that looked to be out of reach and making difficult shot after difficult shot.
“I know that he’s not the fastest player on the tour, but he moves great,” Djokovic said. “He reads the ball and he has great anticipation on the court. Obviously he was reading my shots more than he used to.”
Murray had never beaten Djokovic in four prior meetings.
“It’s a big win mentally for me,” Murray said. “You know, the last three times I played him, I lost pretty badly.”
Djokovic, for his part, looked off. He committed 36 unforced errors to Murray’s 19, with 20 of those coming off his forehand.
“He’s very patient, he’s waiting, he has a lot of talent, a great touch. He knows what shots to play in the right time. He served well. He was just waiting for me.”
Awaiting Murray is the winner of Nadal-Gasquet. In the other semifinal, Kiefer will play Gilles Simon, who defeated Croatia’s Marin Cilic 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
With Federer, Davydenko, Roddick and Blake on their side of the draw, it’s a semifinal few saw coming.
That includes Simon.
“I mean, I didn’t even know what’s happening,” said Simon, ranked 22nd. “I’m just so confident, I want to win every match, even if I’m tired. I know I’m playing very good at the moment, so I want to try to win the more matches I can to have the better ranking at the end of the week.
“Because you know, when you play tennis, sometimes after you can be injured or something like this and the confidence (can) just go away like this.
“So I’m just trying to play with this and to win all the matches I can.”
Kiefer, ranked 37th, hasn’t won an ATP tournament since 2000, in Hong Kong.
But Simon wisely isn’t taking anything for granted.
“I just hope that we are going to play a great match with a great fight,” Simon said. “Even if I died on the court, yeah, I’ll just give the maximum tomorrow.”
Simon, 23, adds Cilic to his list of victims at the tournament, which already included top seed Federer, American qualifier Donald Young and Argentina’s Jose Acasuso.
This match was far from a classic. The players combined for 104 unforced errors, including 64 by Cilic. The 19-year-old fired 37 winners, while Simon connected on just 15 — but that’s his game. He kept the ball in play and waited for Cilic to make mistakes, which he frequently did.
“When you play slowly, we could say that he missed some easy shots because he just doesn’t manage to finish the point himself,” Simon said. “He needs the speed of the opponent. That’s why he had a very good start.
“Then I just wanted, yeah, to put the ball inside on the backhand five, six, seven, 10 times. But I didn’t want to change that, because sometimes he’s a little bit impatient and he’s trying some shots he shouldn’t try and giving some points.”
The match didn’t quite capture the imaginations of the centre-court fans at the Rexall Centre, who were relatively quiet throughout the match.
“Let’s go Federer,” jeered one onlooker during the second set.
In doubles action, Toronto’s Daniel Nestor and Serbian partner Nenad Zimonjic have moved on to the semifinals.
The No. 2 seeds defeated France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (4), 6-4.
“Those guys served well,” Nestor said. “They’re big hitters. We had some chances, and we didn’t get frustrated when we didn’t convert.”
They’ll play seventh seeds Lukas Dlouhy of the Czech Republic and Leander Paes of India in the next round.
Cilic leaves the tournament having made a mark. The 44th-ranked youngster defeated sixth-seeded Roddick, 12th-seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo and Czech qualifier Lukas Dlouhy in an impressive run to the quarter-finals.
Simon said Cilic should play a bit more aggressive.
“Maybe if he comes more often to the net, if he’s coming not every time, but, yes, one point he come and one point he stay, then for the opponent it’s harder,” he said. “But he’s just playing from the baseline and he never comes to the net. Even when you’re far from the ball you just put the ball inside and you run, you run until he misses.”
