Article

  • Ferrero Survives, Hewitt and Fish Also Advance

    3/19/08 1:28 PM | Ricky Dimon
    - Shortly after David Nalbandian won in a third-set tiebreaker, Juan Carlos Ferrero goes the distance with Mario Ancic and comes out on top. Lleyton Hewitt and Mardy Fish will meet in the fourth round after dominant performances.

    Juan Carlos Ferrero d. Mario Ancic
    In what has to be the most thrilling match of the tournament up to this point, Ferrero outlasted Ancic 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(7) in exactly three hours. It was a high-quality affair that featured some incredible shots by both players, not to mention the fact that both held match points. Ferrero had two chances up 6-5 in the third set with Ancic serving, but the 6’5’’ Croat quickly erased them to take the match to a deciding tiebreaker. Ancic led 6-4 in the ‘breaker, only to dump a backhand in the net before seeing Ferrero blast a backhand winner to level things at 6-6. The Spaniard went on to take this instant classic nine points to seven. He moves on to the fourth round where he will meet David Nalbandian, who has won two straight matches in third-set tiebreakers.

    Lleyton Hewitt d. Mikhail Youzhny
    Hewitt makes a living off beating players who are not in good form and putting enough balls back in the court to make opponents beat themselves. That’s what happened again on Tuesday, when the Aussie routed Youzhny 7-5, 6-1. The 13th-seeded Youzhny got up an early break in the first set, but squandered the advantage right away and completely lost confidence the rest of the way. He put in just 53 percent of his first serves and double-faulted five times. There were too many errors from both players at the baseline, but especially from the Russian, whose normally rock-solid one-handed backhand lost control. Hewitt advances to the fourth round where he will take on Mardy Fish, an upset winner over Nikolay Davydenko.

    Mardy Fish d. Nikolay Davydenko
    Fish crushed Davydenko 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 15 minutes and the scoreline is a bit of a shock for several reasons. Normally slow hard courts would favor the baseline-grinder Davydenko over the big-serving Fish, but that was not the case on this day. Fish also served at a dismal 48 percent rate—with zero aces—and you would think the American’s first serve had to be the key to his success against Davydenko. Nonetheless, Fish overcame all of that thanks to a commanding performance from the baseline and nothing short of dismal play by the Russian. Davydenko simply could do nothing. He failed to take advantage of his opponent’s poor serving, won far too few points with his own serve, and collapsed off both sides from the baseline. As a result of the No. 4 seed’s surprisingly awful form, Fish cruised easily into the fourth round.

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