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WEEKLY
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| Nadal makes last-sixteen in China |
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Thursday, October 15, 2009
SHANGHAI: Top seed Rafa Nadal marched into the last 16 of the Shanghai Masters with a thoroughly entertaining 6-2 6-7 6-4 victory over American James Blake on Wednesday.
US Open champion Juan Martin Del Potro, however, joined the growing casualty list at the $3.24m tournament, retiring because of a wrist injury while 7-5 2-1 down to Austrian Jurgen Melzer.
World No 2 Nadal beat Blake in three sets on his way to the semifinals in Beijing last week and on Wednesday needed more than two hours to get past the man he rates as having one of the best returns in the game.
After Nadal raced away with the first set, the pair contested two absorbing sets littered with high-quality winners before Nadal, with Blake serving to take the match into a decisive tiebreak, unleashed a sizzling forehand to clinch victory.
The Spaniard has not reached a final since the Madrid Masters in May and will continue his comeback from knee and abdominal injuries against compatriot Tommy Robredo on Thursday (today).
Third seed Del Potro followed Andy Roddick in departing early through injury after the American fourth seed departed with a knee problem on Tuesday.
Fifth seed Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France took exactly an hour to dismiss Chinese wild card Zeng Shaoxuan 6-3 6-3 and set up a third-round clash with Swedish ninth seed Robin Soderling, who beat Spain’s Nicolas Almagro 6-4 7-5.
Ivan Ljubicic proved it was possible to play at the top level after 30, in spite of the gruelling schedule, by upsetting Spanish seventh seed Fernando Verdasco 6-4 7-6.
The Croatian will meet Gael Monfils in the last 16 after the French 11th seed rallied from a break down in the third set to beat Australia’s former world number one Lleyton Hewitt 4-6 6-4 6-2.
Elsewhere in Osaka, India’s Sania Mirza became the first player to reach the quarter-finals of the Japan Open on Wednesday, beating Viktoriya Kutuzova of Ukraine in straight sets.
The 22-year-old Sania, who won the Australian Open mixed doubles with Mahesh Bhupathi this season, took advantage of a rash of double faults from Kutuzova on her way to a 6-4, 6-3 win.
In the last eight on Friday, Sania will play the 2006 champion, Marion Bartoli of France, seeded second.
Bartoli, battling for the final spot in the season-ending championships, thumped Japanese wild card Kurumi Nara 6-1, 6-1 in just 61 minutes.
In other second-round action, fourth seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy had an unconvincing 6-3, 0-6, 6-3 win over Chan Yung-jan of Taiwan.
Seventh seed Melinda Czink of Hungary hit seven aces and seven double faults in beating Vania King of the United States 6-4, 6-2.
Defending champion Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, the top seed and runner-up at the US Open, was due to play Katie O’Brien of Britain on Thursday (today).
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ISSN 1563-9479 
