Roddick falls, Davenport into quarters

MELBOURNE – Andy Roddick’s Australian Open dreams collapsed yesterday when he was ousted in the fourth round, while women’s top seed Lindsay Davenport struggled with an ankle injury but remained on course.

The second seeded Roddick was sent packing by 54th-ranked Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who drew on vocal crowd support to beat him 6-4, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4. The 2003 US Open champion was always under pressure against his charismatic opponent and failed to find the weapons to tame him in front of a large contingent of chanting local Greek Cypriots.”It’s always tough.But the good thing about tennis is there’s always next week,” said the American, and defended his demise by pointing to the depth of talent in men’s tennis.”There’s one guy (Roger Federer) who has set himself apart, and the rest of men’s tennis is very deep where anybody can beat anybody on a given day.”Baghdatis, who called the win the best of his career, will now face Croatia’s seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic who beat former winner, Swedish 10th seed Thomas Johansson in straight sets.Davenport also made it into the quarters along with Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Nadia Petrova.With Roddick’s demise she is now the only American left in the draw but ensured the Stars and Stripes kept fluttering with an easy win over 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.She said though that a left ankle injury picked up in the third round was hampering her, and she needed treatment for it in the second set.”You know, train really hard, try to get everything that I normally injure better, and then I trip – something happens like that on the court,” she said of the injury after beating the Russian 14th seed 6-2, 6-4.”It’s a little frustrating …it’s just one of those things where you shake your head about it in disbelief.”Her match was played with the roof closed on Rod Laver Arena with temperatures hitting 43 Celsius (109 Fahrenheit), forcing play on outside courts to be suspended for the third straight day.Davenport will now face Belgian eighth seed Henin-Hardenne, who was equally impressive in her 6-0, 6-3 drubbing of Spain’s Virginia Ruano Pascual.Henin-Hardenne has been installed as favourite ahead of Martina Hingis to win the tournament by bookmakers and scorched through her fourth round match on Vodafone Arena, also played with the roof closed.The Belgian knows what it takes to win here, taking the title in 2004 before injury forced her to miss the event last year and she wasted little energy in her mauling of the Spaniard.Henin-Hardenne, whose superstitiously refuses to walk on tennis court lines between points, is now unbeaten in 18 matches in Australia, including her Sydney and Open titles in 2004 and the Sydney title this year.Fourth seed Sharapova also pushed on, dispatching Serena Williams’ conqueror Daniela Hantuchova of the Slovak Republic in a workmanlike 6-4, 6-4.The Russian, who almost skipped the tournament because of a rib injury, said she felt like she was approaching peak form.A confident Petrova, seeded six, continued her low-key assault on the title in an all-Russian affair against Elena Vesnina, winning 6-3, 6-1 to set up a quarter-final against Sharapova.Fourth seed David Nalbandian also progressed, making his fourth consecutive Australian Open quarter-final with a four-set win over Spain’s Tommy Robredo.He is on the same side of the draw as Roddick, whose failure opens his path to the final.First he needs to get past French veteran Fabrice Santoro, whose victory over Spanish 11th seed David Ferrer handed him his first Grand Slam quarter-final in 18 years.- Nampa-AFPThe 2003 US Open champion was always under pressure against his charismatic opponent and failed to find the weapons to tame him in front of a large contingent of chanting local Greek Cypriots.”It’s always tough.But the good thing about tennis is there’s always next week,” said the American, and defended his demise by pointing to the depth of talent in men’s tennis.”There’s one guy (Roger Federer) who has set himself apart, and the rest of men’s tennis is very deep where anybody can beat anybody on a given day.”Baghdatis, who called the win the best of his career, will now face Croatia’s seventh seed Ivan Ljubicic who beat former winner, Swedish 10th seed Thomas Johansson in straight sets.Davenport also made it into the quarters along with Maria Sharapova, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Nadia Petrova.With Roddick’s demise she is now the only American left in the draw but ensured the Stars and Stripes kept fluttering with an easy win over 2004 US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.She said though that a left ankle injury picked up in the third round was hampering her, and she needed treatment for it in the second set.”You know, train really hard, try to get everything that I normally injure better, and then I trip – something happens like that on the court,” she said of the injury after beating the Russian 14th seed 6-2, 6-4.”It’s a little frustrating …it’s just one of those things where you shake your head about it in disbelief.”Her match was played with the roof closed on Rod Laver Arena with temperatures hitting 43 Celsius (109 Fahrenheit), forcing play on outside courts to be suspended for the third straight day.Davenport will now face Belgian eighth seed Henin-Hardenne, who was equally impressive in her 6-0, 6-3 drubbing of Spain’s Virginia Ruano Pascual.Henin-Hardenne has been installed as favourite ahead of Martina Hingis to win the tournament by bookmakers and scorched through her fourth round match on Vodafone Arena, also played with the roof closed.The Belgian knows what it takes to win here, taking the title in 2004 before injury forced her to miss the event last year and she wasted little energy in her mauling of the Spaniard.Henin-Hardenne, whose superstitiously refuses to walk on tennis court lines between points, is now unbeaten in 18 matches in Australia, including her Sydney and Open titles in 2004 and the Sydney title this year.Fourth seed Sharapova also pushed on, dispatching Serena Williams’ conqueror Daniela Hantuchova of the Slovak Republic in a workmanlike 6-4, 6-4.The Russian, who almost skipped the tournament because of a rib injury, said she felt like she was approaching peak form.A confident Petrova, seeded six, continued her low-key assault on the title in an all-Russian affair against Elena Vesnina, winning 6-3, 6-1 to set up a quarter-final against Sharapova.Fourth seed David Nalbandian also progressed, making his fourth consecutive Australian Open quarter-final with a four-set win over Spain’s Tommy Robredo.He is on the same side of the draw as Roddick, whose failure opens his path to the final.First he needs to get past French veteran Fabrice Santoro, whose victory over Spanish 11th seed David Ferrer handed him his first Grand Slam quarter-final in 18 years.- Nampa-AFP