Sun Aug 31 00:26:16 2008

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Nadal, Murray reach fourth round in Flushing; Ferrer upset

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Flushing Meadows, NY (Sports Network) - High-flying Spaniard Rafael Nadal and surging Brit Andy Murray were third-round winners Saturday at the 2008 U.S. Open, while fourth-seeded Spaniard David Ferrer was upended.

Also on Saturday, Argentina's Juan Martin del Potro rolled to his 22nd straight win, and Mardy Fish upset ninth-seeded James Blake in an All-American matchup.

The recently-crowned world No. 1 Nadal drilled Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-3, 6-0 on Day 6 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The five-time major champion moved on in 1 hour, 55 minutes with the help of six service breaks, compared to only one for the loser from Serbia.

Nadal has now won his last 17 Grand Slam matches, including titles at Wimbledon and the French Open, where he beat former top-ranked star Roger Federer in both finals. The super southpaw also secured an Olympic gold medal in Beijing earlier this month.

The 22-year-old Nadal has never advanced beyond the quarterfinals (2006) in New York. He's trying to become only the fourth man in the Open Era (since 1968) to win three straight major events. Rod Laver, Pete Sampras and Federer (twice) are the only ones to do it so far.

Up next for Nadal will be unseeded big-serving American Sam Querrey, who reached the fourth round by upsetting 14th-seeded 6-foot-10 Croat Ivo Karlovic 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2. The 6-foot-6 Querrey ousted 22nd-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych in his opening-round match this week.

Querrey and Karlovic combined for 44 aces, including 24 for the loser. The American committed a mere 13 unforced errors and held his serve throughout the big-hitting bout.

Ferrer fell to Japan's Kei Nishikori 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 7-5. Del Potro, who has won his last four tournaments, survived Frenchman Gilles Simon 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.

Blake's Olympic run over the two weeks prior to the Open seemed to take a lot out of the American, as Fish handled the No. 9 seed to the tune of 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).

Meanwhile, a sixth-seeded Murray came all the way back to beat Austrian lefthander Jurgen Melzer, 6-7 (5-7), 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, 6-3 on the Grandstand court. Murray sweated it out in 3 hours, 52 minutes, as he fired 18 aces, compared to 16 for Melzer, and committed only 29 unforced errors over the long five-setter. The Scotsman broke the Austrian five times, while Melzer could come up with only two breaks in the heartbreaking setback.

The talented Murray is a quality 17-3 since the French Open, including a Masters Series title in Cincinnati, and will meet 10th-seeded Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka in the round of 16 here.

Like Murray, Wawrinka avoided a big upset by overcoming a two-sets-to-love deficit en route to a 5-7, 6-7 (4-7), 6-4, 6-0, 6-4 victory over game Italian Flavio Cipolla. The steady Wawrinka captured the men's doubles gold medal, alongside Federer, in Beijing earlier this month.

An upset did come when 32nd-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils took out seventh- seeded Argentine David Nalbandian 6-3, 6-4, 6-2. Nalbandian is a former Tennis Masters Cup champion and Wimbledon runner-up and reached the U.S. Open semifinals in 2003.

Monfils reached the French Open semis back in June.