No. 5 Del Potro upsets No. 1 Ferrer in Tokyo; Berdych, Gasquet, Roddick advance

Despite heavy hitters being involved in all matches played on Friday at the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo, no match went the distance, although the top seed and third seed were eliminated. No. 5 Juan Martin Del Potro (pictured) stunned defending champion and No. 1 seed David Ferrer, while No. 2 Andy Roddick, No. 4 Richard Gasquet and No. 9 Tomas Berdych were also successful this afternoon in their attempt to win the title.

Del Potro, one of the hottest players on the ATP Tour recently, dismantled the defending champion, 6-1, 7-5, in just over an hour and a half. The 20-year-old Argentine smashed six aces, lost only ten points on his first serve and was able to break serve five different times on ten opportunities. With the victory, the young Argentine won for the 28th time in his last 29 matches. The youngster improved to 37-9 on the season, including a 4-14 lifetime record against Top 10 players.

"I have changed a lot of things in my game and in my mind, there is not one in particular that has improved so much this year," said Del Potro. "It is a combination of a lot of things. The first set looked easy but I knew it was going to be harder than that because [Ferrer] is a warrior and fights until the last point."

Ferrer fell to 44-20 on the season after losing today. Ferrer previously beat Del Potro in both of their career meetings before today’s encounter.

"I am not surprised by how he played,” said Ferrer. “He has so much confidence right now winning all these matches the last two months. Today he served very well on important points: that was the difference. But I am still happy, as this was my best match in the last month. I don’t think about Shanghai now, I try to take it week by week. Now I have a couple of days off then I will prepare for Madrid."

Next up for Del Potro in the semifinals is No. 4 seed Gasquet of France, a 6-3, 6-2, winner over No. 12 Rainer Schuettler of Germany. In the one-hour match, Gasquet fired eight aces, while losing only seven points on his first serve. The young Frenchman was able to break serve on all three opportunities he had throughout the quick match. Del Potro and Gasquet have each won once against each other throughout their career with Gasquet winning their only hard court meeting, which occurred at the Masters Series Indian Wells in 2007.

In the lower half of the draw Roddick will meet Berdych for a place in the final. Roddick, the title winner last week in Beijing at the China Open, beat rising Serbian player Viktor Troicki, 6-3, 6-4, in 81 minutes. The American smashed seven aces, while breaking serve on three of ten chances. The 26-year-old who owns 26 career ATP singles titles improves his record to 44-13, while the Serbian drops to 19-17 on the year.

No. 9 Berdych showed no shame against No. 3 seed Fernando Gonzalez, winning easily, 6-0, 6-4, in just over an hour. Gonzalez played sloppy throughout, winning only nine points out of 35 in the opening set. Earlier this year at the Masters Series Cincinnati in the first round, Berdych beat Gonzalez in the pair’s fifth career meeting. The Czech Republic star improves to 30-19 on the season, while Gonzalez falls to 37-13 in a year that has been highlighted by a silver medal performance at the Beijing Olympics.

No. 5 Tursunov, No. 7 Stepanek among Quarterfinal winners at Open de Moselle

The three remaining seeds entering play on Friday at the Open de Moselle advanced to the semifinals after winning their quarterfinal matches this afternoon in Metz, France. Also winning was French qualifier Adrian Mannarino, who continued his fairy tale tournament by winning his third straight match this week that is highlighted by his first career ATP level victory.

No. 7 Radek Stepanek (pictured) dug deep into his bag of tricks for a second straight match, winning a close three set battle, 3-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, over Argentine Eduardo Schwank to advance to his fifth semifinal of the season. Both players were pretty even in the statistics department, as Stepanek fired six aces compared to Schwank’s five aces and both players were only able to break serve once, but Stepanek broke in the final set to give him the winning pass into the next round. Schwank falls to 14-13 on the season, but has to be pleased that he started the 2008 season ranked No. 171 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, but is currently ranked No. 54. The 29-year-old from the Czech Republic, who is playing in Metz for the first time in his career next meets No. 5 Dmitry Tursunov in the semifinals.

Tursunov easily took care of Spaniard Carlos Moya, 6-3, 6-3, in just over an hour. Moya was fresh off an upset victory over No. 1 seed Ivo Karlovic of Croatia. The California based Russian smashed nine aces, while losing only seven points on his first serve. Tursunov was also able to break serve on three occasions, while Moya could not break serve despite having four opportunities. Tursunov improves to 31-19 on the year and will be looking to win his first career match against Stepanek.

No. 4 Mathieu of France held off a strong effort from Serbian Janko Tipsarevic for a, 7-6(4), 6-3, victory. Both plays fired lots of aces, with the Frenchman smashing 12, while Tipsarevic hit 13. Mathieu got the better end of the bargain in the match though, as he got the only service break in the second set which ultimately sealed the victory for the hometown favorite.

"It was a very close match today. Two or three points decided the match," said Mathieu.

Mathieu improves to 28-23 on the year and next will try to end Mannarino’s inspiring tournament run. The young Frenchman upset Marc Gicquel, 6-4, 7-6(3), today in just over an hour and a half. Mannarino, who earned a spot in the main draw after winning enough matches in the qualifying tournament, is making just his second appearance in an ATP level event. The French qualifier, who is currently ranked No. 181, has won two Futures level tournaments this season.

No. 4 Mathieu, No. 5 Stepanek advance at Open de Moselle in France

The remaining second round matches at the Open de Moselle in Metz, France, were completed with both seeded players advancing. The seeded winners on Thursday included No. 4 Paul-Henri Mathieu (pictured) and No. 7 Radek Stepanek.

No. 4 seed Mathieu beat French qualifier Romain Jouan, 6-3, 6-3, making him the highest seeded player remaining in the tournament. Mathieu smashed 13 aces compared to Jouan’s one ace, while breaking serve three times without facing any break points. Currently ranked No. 440 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Jouan was fresh off an upset victory over Agustin Calleri, which was his first career ATP level victory. Mathieu will do battle in the quarterfinals against Serbian Janko Tipsarevic, who earlier this year advanced to the fourth round at Wimbledon, which was highlighted by a victory over Andy Roddick in the second round. Tipsarevic leads the all time series 2-1, winning most recently in three sets in the first round at the Masters Series Monte Carlo.

No. 7 seed Stepanek of the Czech Republic was able to disregard Michael Llodra’s 19 aces by breaking serve on three occasions to beat the Frenchman, 6-7(5), 6-1, 7-6(0), in just over two hours. Stepanek chalked up plenty of aces on his own, smashing 12 aces as he was also able to win 79 percent of first serve points. Currently ranked No. 29, the Czech native improves his career series record against Llodra to 4-1. In his four quarterfinal appearances this year, he has not yet lost in that round. He was the runner-up in San Jose, while reaching the semifinals in Memphis, Sydney and at the Masters Series Rome. He will next meet World No. 54 Eduardo Schwank who edged past Romanian Victor Hanescu, 7-6(6), 6-7(5), 6-3, in just over two and a half hours. It will be the Argentina citizen’s fourth quarterfinal appearance of the year. The pair has never played each other on the ATP Tour.

Other winners on Thursday included qualifier Adrian Mannarino, who reached his first career ATP level quarterfinal after beating fellow qualifier Rik de Voest, 6-4, 7-5. Currently owning a No. 181 ranking, Mannarino had never won an ATP level match before playing in Metz. Frenchman Marc Gicquel held off wild card entrant Nicolas Mahut, 6-3, 7-6(4), in just over an hour and a half to advance. He will next face Mannarino for a spot in the semifinals.

Following up with a match that was in progress at the time of yesterday’s post, Carlos Moya went onto shock No. 1 seed Ivo Karlovic, 6-3, 7-6(4). Moya, a former World No. 1 and Roland Garros champion, withstood 18 aces from the 6’10” serving machine from Croatia, as he lost only six points on his serve throughout the match. Moya next plays No. 5 seed Dmitry Tursunov for a spot in the semifinals. Moya owns a 1-0 series edge against Tursunov, winning in straight sets at the 2004 Wimbledon Championships.

No. 1 Ferrer survives against World No. 593 in Tokyo; Roddick, Del Potro also win

Many highly anticipated third round matches took place on Thursday at the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo with majority of the higher seeded players coming out victorious. Three of the higher seeded players including Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, Tommy Robredo and Mikhail Youzhny were less fortunate as they lost today, hurting their chances tremendously in locking up a spot in the year end Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai.

In a match between World No. 5 David Ferrer (pictured) and Japanese wild card entrant and World No. 593 Takao Suzuki, the more experienced and crafty Spaniard came out successfully, winning the three set battle, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. Suzuki, who entered this week’s tournament without winning consecutive matches since this event in 2006 when he reached the quarterfinals, broke serve twice in the first set to take the lead. Ferrer quickly regrouped and did not let the Tokyo resident back into the match, as he served up three aces, while breaking serve on four of eleven opportunities. Ferrer, the defending champion in Tokyo, advances to his tenth quarterfinal of the year, but first since the July tournament Bastad. Ferrer next meets No. 5 seed Juan Martin Del Potro for a spot in the semifinals.

The 20-year-old Argentine defeated No. 11 seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, 6-1, 6-3, in just over an hour. Del Potro has now won 27 out of his last 28 matches, which includes four singles titles since July. The Argentine broke serve on five of eight chances, while Nieminen was only able to break once throughout the match. If Del Potro wins the tournament this week, he would jump from No. 10 to No. 8 in the ATP race points to the Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai.

No. 2 seed and last week’s China Open champion Andy Roddick fired 20 aces this afternoon on his way to a convincing, 7-6(2), 6-2, victory over Austrian Jurgen Melzer. The American has now hit 57 over aces after playing in two matches this week. Roddick now improves his season record to 43-13, which includes three titles and a quarterfinal performance at the US Open in September.

“I was a little sluggish last night, so I was pleased to have a quicker match tonight,” said Roddick.

Roddick will next meet Viktor Troicki of Serbia in the quarterfinals. Troicki was trailing in his match against Tsonga, when the young Frenchman retired with an abdominal strain injury. Tsonga was leading 7-5, 1-2 at the time of the injury. Currently ranked at a career best No. 65 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Troicki beat Roddick in their last meeting in three sets in the quarterfinals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington. Troicki ended up reaching the finals in Washington, where he lost a close match to Del Potro.

Other notable match results from Thursday included Beijing Olympic silver medallist Fernando Gonzlaez of Chile dispatching Jacksonville based American Amer Delic, 6-4, 7-6(4), and Frenchman Richard Gasquet easily dispatching Japanese teenage sensation Kei Nishikori, 6-1, 6-2. Also advancing was No. 9 Tomas Berdych and No. 12 Rainer Schuettler. Berdych and Schuettler were seeded players who upset their higher seeded opponents on Day Four action. Berdych shocked No. 6 Robredo, 7-6(6), 6-2, while Schuettler upset No. 8 Youzhny, 6-3, 6-7(12), 6-4.

Federer withdraws from Stockholm Open

Reigning US Open champion Roger Federer has announced that he has withdrawn from next week’s Stockholm Open in Sweden, pointing out he needs to rest in order to regain his No. 1 ranking.

"2008 has been a tough year for me as I was always playing catch up after being diagnosed with mononucleosis at the beginning of the year. I feel fortunate to be healthy again, but I want to remain at the top of the game for many more years to come and go after the No. 1 ranking again," Federer said in a statement posted on his official website, RogerFederer.com. "In order to do that, I need to get a proper rest and get strong again so that I am 100 percent fit for the remainder of the year or next year."

Currently ranked No. 2 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings behind Spaniard Rafael Nadal, the Swiss native teamed up with countryman Stanislas Wawrinka in August to capture the Doubles Gold Medal at the Beijing Olympics. Federer then dispatched Andy Murray in straight sets last month to win the US Open and claim his 13th career grand slam singles title. Most recently, the tennis legend won matches in singles and doubles to help lead Switzerland over Belgium to gain a spot in the 2009 Davis Cup World Group competition.

The 27-year-old did not designate a specific return date to tournament play, but it’s likely he will return in enough time to play the Masters Series events in Madrid and Paris, before attempting to defend his Tennis Masters Cup title in Shanghai.

Roddick fires 37 aces to advance in Tokyo; Ferrer, Del Potro, Tsonga also win

Defending champion and No. 1 seed David Ferrer, as well as No. 2 Andy Roddick and rising young Argentine star No. 5 Juan Martin Del Potro advanced on Wednesday at the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships in Tokyo. Tennis Masters Cup hopefuls Fernando Gonzalez, Richard Gasquet, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and Tommy Robredo also advanced to the third round, keeping alive their chances to play in the year end tournament in Shanghai.

After losing in his first match last week at the China Open in Beijing, Ferrer got back on track, as he held of a strong effort from rising young American Jesse Levine, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1. Ferrer smashed five aces, won 81 percent of first serve points and was able to convert on four of thirteen break point chances. In the third set, the Spaniard lost only five points on his serve. Ferrer next meets World No. 593 and Tokyo resident Takao Suzuki, who upset No. 15 seed Simone Bolelli of Italy, 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-6(5). It was the first time Suzuki won consecutive matches since he reached the quarterfinals here in 2006, eventually losing to Roger Federer.

Sometimes you can win an ATP Tour singles match without winning as many points as your opponent, but today that wasn’t the case for Roddick. Playing against the very steady Czech player Ivo Minar, the No. 2 seed won 127 points compared to Minar’s 122, en route to a 7-6(11), 6-7(4), 7-6(2), in two hours and 44 minutes. Fresh off winning the China Open title last week, which was his 26th career title, Roddick smashed 37 aces past Minar. It was the most career aces Roddick had ever hit in a three set match. Roddick won 82 percent of his first serve points, while breaking serve twice throughout the match. Minar also won a high percentage of first serve points, winning 77 percent, while also breaking serve on two opportunities. Roddick now improves to 42-13 on the season and will next meet Beijing Olympics quarterfinalist Jurgen Melzer for a spot in the quarterfinals. Melzer easily defeated German Simon Stadler, 6-2, 6-3.

No. 5 Del Potro, who put together a winning streak of 23 matches throughout the summer leading up to the US Open, smoothly dispatched Israeli Dudi Sela, 7-5, 6-0, in 70 minutes. Del Potro was able to cruise to the victory by firing six aces and winning 71 percent of his service points. The 20-year-old Argentine, has now won 26 out of his last 27 matches, which includes titles in Stuttgart, Kitzbuhel, Los Angeles and Washington. He will next face No. 11 seed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland, who defeated Philippines qualifier Cecil Mamiit, 7-6(7), 6-4. Del Potro, who is currently ranked at a career best No. 12, has never played Nieminen in an ATP level match. They did however play at a clay court Challenger tournament in Italy in 2005, with the Argentine winning 6-3, 6-2.

No. 7 Tsonga, who defeated Novak Djokovic last week at the Thailand Open in Bangkok to claim his maiden ATP title, dug deep into his bag of tricks, coming from behind to beat American and former Vanderbilt University star Bobby Reynolds, 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4. Tsonga, who missed three months this year with a knee injury, improves his record to 24-9. He next plays Serbian Viktor Troicki, who crushed American Wayne Odesnik, 6-2, 6-1, in just over an hour. It will be the first meeting between the two players.

After only winning 13 points in a quick first set, No. 3 Gonzalez came from behind to beat Yen-Hsun Lu, 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, in just under two hours to set up a third round showdown with American Amer Delic, a former NCAA Singles Champion at the University of Illinois. Delic, who was ranked as high as No. 60 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings last year, but currently stands at No. 135, upset fellow American No. 13 Sam Querrey, 7-6(5), 6-3. Gonzalez, a 10 time titlist on the ATP since turning pro in 1999, has never faced the Florida based American.

No. 5 Tursunov, Tipsarevic advance to Quarterfinals at Open de Moselle in France

California based Russian Dmitry Tursunov and energetic Serbian Janko Tipsarevic advanced to the quarterfinals of the Open de Moselle in Metz, France, after convincing second round victories on Wednesday. While those two players have already won two matches at this tournament, No. 7 seed Radek Stepanek and Frenchman Michael Llodra were among the final first round winners on Day Three.

In one of the quickest straight set matches on the ATP Tour this season, No. 5 seed Tursunov destroyed clay court specialist Jose Acasuso of Argentina, 6-2, 6-2, in 49 minutes. Tursunov fired 10 aces compared to Acasuso’s five. The Russian lost only three points on his first serve and four points on his second serve. The 25-year-old was able to break serve on all four chances he got. He improves to 30-19 this season, which includes winning the singles title in Sydney and finishing as runner-up at the Indianapolis event. Currently No. 47 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings, Acasuso drops to 26-23 on the year.

Tipsarevic, who shocked the tennis world at Wimbledon this summer by defeating Andy Roddick in the second round, has been extremely quiet since then, winning only two matches since his fourth round performance in London. One of those victories occurred this week against wild card entrant Jeremy Chardy in the first round. This afternoon he got some confidence back, as he defeated Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, 6-4, 6-4, in 76 minutes. Both players hammered nine aces, but the Serbian was able to break serve on three occasions, while Gulbis could only break serve on one of three opportunities. Currently ranked No. 43 in the most recent rankings, Tipsarevic improves to 23-17 on the year. On Friday he will face either No. 4 Paul-Henri Mathieu or qualifier Romain Jouan, in hopes of reaching his first semifinal since the Moscow event in 2007. With the loss, Gulbis drops to 21-19 on the year.

Stepanek, a finalist in San Jose and quarterfinalist in Sydney, Memphis and at the Masters Series Rome, advanced in convincing fashion with a, 6-3, 6-2, win over Frenchman Julien Benneteau in 72 minutes. The former World No. 8 smacked seven aces, while breaking serve on three of six chances. Next up for Stepanek is local hopeful Llodra, who won a three set thriller over Feliciano Lopez of Spain.

In a serving classic by both competitors, Llodra smashed 20 aces and only four double faults compared to Lopez’s 17 aces and five doubles faults, en route to a, 7-6(11), 6-7(6), 6-3, victory. The singles winner earlier this year in Adelaide and Rotterdam, Llodra was able to secure the only break of serve in the final set of the match. Llodra is currently ranked No. 36 and improves his singles record to 23-17. Lopez, ranked one spot behind the Frenchman at No. 37, falls to 16-22 on the year.

At the time of this post, Carlos Moya, a former World No. 1 and 1998 Roland Garros champion, is up 6-3, 3-3 against No. 1 seed Ivo Karlovic in a second round clash. With the match being only 47 minutes old, the 6’10” Croatian already has smashed 15 aces.