Fri Jun 27 17:30:10 2008

Comment | Email | Print

Federer cruises, Ferrer falls in third round at Wimbledon

---

Wimbledon, England (Sports Network) - Five-time champion Roger Federer won his third-round match in straight sets at Wimbledon on Friday, while fifth- seeded David Ferrer fell out of the tournament.

After rain forced play to be delayed for 90 minutes, the top-seeded Federer rolled over France's Marc Gicquel, 6-3, 6-3, 6-1. The Swiss Federer, looking to capture his sixth consecutive title here, extended his grass-court winning streak to 62 matches.

The top-seeded/world No. 1 Federer is also now riding a 37-match winning streak at Wimbledon. Bjorn Borg holds the record with 41 straight victories.

Federer's win will set up a compelling fourth-round match with 20th-seeded Lleyton Hewitt, who advanced after beating Italy's Simone Bolelli, 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2).

The Australian Hewitt was the last player other than Federer to win the Wimbledon title, back in 2002.

Ferrer's best result at this tournament came in 2006, when he advanced to the fourth round. But the Spaniard was unable to reach that mark this year, when he lost a grueling four-set match to Croatia's Mario Ancic.

Ancic comfortably took the first two sets, 6-4, 6-4, until Ferrer needed a tiebreak to win the third, 7-6 (7-5). The two went to another tiebreak in the fourth set, though Ancic came out on top, 7-6 (7-3), to clinch the victory.

Ancic, a Wimbledon semifinalist in 2004, will meet 22nd-seeded Fernando Verdasco in the fourth round. Verdasco, a Spaniard who reached the fourth round here in 2006, dismissed Czech Tomas Berdych, 6-4, 6-4, 6-0. Berdych, the No. 11 seed, reached the quarterfinals last year.

Other seeded players to advance were No. 10 Marcos Baghdatis and No. 31 Feliciano Lopez, setting up a fourth-round meeting.

Baghdatis, from Cyprus, needed a tiebreak to win the first set, but eventually rolled to a 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-2 win over German Simon Stadler. Baghdatis was a semifinalist in 2006.

The Spaniard Lopez, a quarterfinalist in 2005, rallied after dropping the third set to beat American Bobby Reynolds 6-4, 7-5, 4-6, 6-4. Reynolds was the only remaining American men's singles player left in the tournament.

Russian Marat Safin battled to a win over 29th-seeded Italian Andreas Seppi, 7-6 (7-5), 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4. He will meet 13th-seeded Stanislas Wawrinka in the fourth round, as Wawrinka's opponent, German Mischa Zverev, withdrew after two sets.

Saturday's third-round action will feature several seeded players, including No. 2 Rafael Nadal. He was a finalist here the past two seasons, losing to Federer each time. But Nadal is coming off a straight-set thrashing of his Swiss rival in the final of this year's French Open, which Nadal has won four straight years.

Nadal meets 27th-seeded Nicolas Kiefer of Germany on Saturday. Additionally, No. 16 Radek Stepanek and No. 17 Mikhail Youzhny square off; No. 8 Frenchman Richard Gasquet -- a semifinalist last year -- faces countryman Gilles Simon, seeded 28th; Britain's Andy Murray, seeded 12th takes on Tommy Haas; No. 14 Paul-Henri Mathieu faces Marin Cilic; and No. 25 Dmitry Tursunov plays Janko Tipsarevic, who ousted sixth-seeded Andy Roddick in the second round. Rounding out the action, Guillermo Garcia-Lopez faces Rainer Schuettler, and Jurgen Melzer plays Arnaud Clement.