Federer survives; Roddick upset

Mason, August 17:

Roger Federer survived a scare from Marcos Baghdatis to move into the quarter-finals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters, which has been brutal to seeded players this week.

Federer beat Baghdatis 7-6 (5), 7-5, shortly after David Ferrer ousted defending champion Andy Roddick 7-6 (4), 6-4.

Only four seeds remain, including No 9 James Blake, who beat Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1, 6-4. The field for quarter-finals includes three players from Spain, two from the United States and one each from Switzerland, Russia and Australia.

The fallen seeds include No 3 Roddick and No 2 Rafael Nadal, who retired on Wednesday with cramps in his wrist and arm. No 4 Novak Djokovic lost to Carlos Moya, who stayed alive by beating Juan Martin Del Potro 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 in a match in 110-degree heat. No 5 Nikolay Davydenko beat No 10 Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-2; Lleyton Hewitt topped Jurgen Melzer 6-3, 6-3; Nicolas Almagro defeated Jarkko Nieminen 6-2, 6-2; and Sam Querry downed Juan Monaco 6-3, 7-5.

Rogers Cup

TORONTO: Top Ranked Justine Henin beat China’s Peng Shuai 7-5, 6-2 at the Rogers Cup, moving three wins away from her sixth WTA Tour title of the season. Henin was upset in the semi-finals at Wimbledon and had to pull out of a tournament in San Diego with injuries to both her wrists. However, she’s playing well as she prepares for the US Open.

Other seeded players to advance included Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, Nadia Petrova of Russia and Tatiana Golovin of France.

Seventh-seeded Marian Bartoli beat No 9 Dinara Safina of Russia 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-0 in the late match. Jankovic beat No 13 Sybille Bammer of Austria 6-2, 6-3; Kuznetsova beat Meghann Shaughnessy of the US 6-3, 6-2; and Golovin downed Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-2, 6-0.

Virginie Razzano downed 10th-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel 6-4, 6-3. China’s Yan Zi, ranked 169th in the world, pulled off another upset with a 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (5) victory over Eleni Daniilidou of Greece. Yan stunned defending champion Ana Ivanovic a day earlier.