Cincinnati Masters Third Round Results

It only took 59 minutes for Novak Djokovic to dismantle Italian Andreas Seppi to advance into the quarterfinals for the first time of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters. The no. 3 had a shaky start immediately losing his opening service game. He was able to break back though and from then, the Serb never looked back. He won the next 10 games to win the opening set and take a 4-0 lead in the next. Seppi was able to reduce the embarrassment from this encounter by holding serve in his next two games. It was all futile though as Djokovic powered his way through easily.

Top seed Roger Federer was next on Center Court against the big-serving Ivo Karlovic. The players have met in 6 matches with the Swiss getting the better of the Croat each time. During the coin toss, Federer immediately opted to serve knowing how critical it is to hold his service game against Karlovic. Predictably, the first set went into a tie-break which went to the Croat after Federer shot a forehand long while on his serve. In the second set, the world no. 1 found the crucial break on the fifth game which helped him win the set and force a deciding set. Again, a tie-break was forced as both players held serve convincingly, never facing a break point. In his first service game, Federer’s backhand clipped the net and went wide to give a 2-0 advantage to Karlovic. The world no. 1-at least for now- played brilliantly throughout the match. It was unfortunate that his two unforced errors during both tie-breaks would be as costly as it is. Federer’s unforced error count was quite low compared to Karlovic and unlike his recent matches (particularly against Gilles Simon last week in Toronto), his forehand was glorious producing breathtaking winners.

With Federer’s early loss, Rafael Nadal’s chances of being world no. 1 by the end of the week are even greater. In his third round match, he was up against former world no. 2 Tommy Haas of Germany. Nadal was quick to assert his authority breaking the German in his first service game to lead 2-0. That was enough for the Spaniard to win the opening set as both players held serve. Haas continued his strong run into the second set preventing Nadal from breaking his serve. Nadal also held serve to force a tie-break. The German however lost all his steam as the Spaniard dominated the tie-break denying Haas to score any point. If Nadal wins the title, he will assume the no. 1 ranking by next week.

A title would give Nadal 6,730 points to Federer's 6,680 next Monday. If Nadal reaches the final, he will become No. 1 on Aug. 11. With a semifinal here, Nadal will become No. 1 on Aug. 18. The only way Nadal can't become No. 1 in the next three weeks is IF he loses in the quarterfinals here and Federer wins the Olympic gold medal AND Nadal does not reach the Third Round or better at the Olympics.

Nikolay Davydenko lost to Carlos Moya in a 3-set thriller which started Wednesday evening but was delayed to Thursday after some evening showers. The Spaniard was in control pretty much the entire match, never really allowing the Russian a chance to fight back.

Results:

[2] Rafael NADAL (ESP) d. Tommy HAAS (GER) 6-4, 7-6(0)

[3] Novak DJOKOVIC (SRB) d. Andreas SEPPI (ITA) 6-1, 6-2

[16] Ivo KARLOVIC (CRO) d. [1] Roger FEDERER (SUI) 7-6(6), 4-6, 7-6(5)

Carlos MOYA (ESP) d. [4] Nikolay DAVYDENKO (RUS) 7-6(8), 4-6, 6-2