Higher seeds advance; No. 18 Almagro falls

To your average tennis fan, the name Gilles Muller of Luxembourg doesn’t ring a bell. To someone who claims to be a diehard tennis fan, they will remember him solely as the guy who upset Andy Roddick in the 1st round of the US Open in 2005. Today though, the former US Open junior champion, rallied from two sets down for the second straight match, as he upset No. 18 Nicolas Almagro, 6-7(3), 3-6, 7-6(5), 7-6(6), 7-5, in roughly four hours to advance to his first ever grand slam 4th round. Despite Almagro winning twelve more points then Muller, it was the one break of serve Muller grinded out in the final set and Muller’s mental toughness that was able to earn him a spot in the in the final sixteen. Currently ranked No. 130 in the world, the Luxembourg native smashed 38 aces, while Almagro hammered 24 aces. Both players hit five doubles faults. The 25-year old qualifier has now won six matches in just over a week, including three qualifying matches. Next up for Muller is No. 5 seed and two-time US Open semifinalist Nikolay Davydenko who won convincingly over countryman Dmitry Tursunov, 6-2, 7-6(3), 6-3.

No. 15 seed Tommy Roberdo (pictured), who is well respected on all playing surfaces by his peers, took care of business in convincing fashion over Frenchman and No. 19 seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, 7-6(2), 6-2, 6-3, to advance to the 4th round for the fourth time in five years. The Spaniard won 83 percent of first serve points, including 72 percent when making his first serve and 81 percent when making his second serve. Roberdo was also extremely solid on his return game as he won 45 percent of his receiving points and was able to break the young Frenchman on four occasions. Tsonga clearly didn’t post as good of numbers, as he was only able to win 62 percent of his serving points, including only 40 percent on his second serve and hitting 5 double faults. Tsonga, who finished runner-up at this year’s Australian Open and has been battling recent injuries, was only able to break Robredo’s serve once after having five chances to get back on serve in the close three-set battle. With three wins so far in New York, Robredo has now won back-to-back hard court matches for the first time since the Masters Series Paris last November. The current No. 15 in the ATP South African Airways Rankings next meets either No. 3 Novak Djokovic or No. 30 Marin Cilic, who are currently in a fourth set with Djokovic up two sets to one, at the time of this posting.

Others winners on Sunday in New York:
No. 2 Roger Federer (SUI) def. No. 28 Radek Stepanek (CZE) 6-3, 6-3, 6-2
No. 8 Andy Roddick (USA) def. No. 31 Andreas Seppi (ITA) 6-2, 7-5, 7-6(4)
No. 11 Fernando Gonzalez (CHI) def. Jarkko Nieminen (FIN) 7-5, 6-4, 6-7(3), 6-1
No. 23 Igor Andreev (RUS) def. No. 13 Fernando Verdasco (ESP) 6-2, 6-4, 6-4