Ginepri and Ferrer upset seeds to make quarters

By Simon Baskett

MADRID (Reuters) – American Robby Ginepri upset third seed
Nikolay Davydenko with a high-quality 6-3 7-5 victory to claim
a place in the quarter-finals of the Madrid Masters on
Thursday.

Ginepri will now be matched against Spain’s David Ferrer
who fought his way back from a set down to clinch a 6-7 6-1 6-4
win over sixth seed and French Open runner-up Mariano Puerta.

Ginepri and Ferrer will be joined in the last eight by
fifth seed David Nalbandian, who notched a 6-3 7-5 win over
Sweden’s Thomas Johansson.

Nalbandian, who lost to Marat Safin in last year’s final,
faces a daunting showdown with Croatian Karlovic who used his
monster serve to blast his way to a 7-6 7-6 victory over
Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia.

Karlovic, who disposed of number two seed Andy Roddick in
the last round, has gone to a tiebreak in seven of the eight
sets he has played in Madrid this week and appropriately enough
finished off against Hrbaty with a thundering ace.

Radek Stepanek, who beat British number one Tim Henman in
the second round, downed Argentine Jose Acasuso 7-6 4-6 7-6 to
make a quarter-final for the fourth time in a row inside the
last month.

The pugnacious Czech, seeded 10 in Madrid, will take on the
winner of the all-Spanish duel between top seed and world
number two Rafael Nadal and Tommy Robredo.

Fourth-seeded Argentine Guillermo Coria will pit himself
against Chile number one Fernando Gonzalez, while the in-form
Ivan Ljubcic of Croatia plays Belgium’s Olivier Rochus for the
remaining places in the last eight.

BEST POINT

The powerful Ginepri, a U.S. Open semi-finalist and seeded
16 in Madrid, had to push himself to the limit to beat world
number eight Davydenko, but he gained the crucial advantage
when he won the best point of the match with a running forehand
pass to go 6-5 up in the second set.

The never-say-die Russian saved four match points in the
12th game, but finally succumbed when Ginepri won his serve
with an ace.

Earlier Nalbandian made a confident start against Johansson
by breaking serve in the fourth game to go 3-1 up.

Johansson, who won the only previous meeting between the
players at the Wimbledon quarter-finals this year, fought back
and put the Nalbandian serve under pressure.

But the Argentine held firm to take the first set.

In the second, Nalbandian produced a series of devastating
returns to break the Johansson serve in the 11th game and take
a 6-5 lead before serving for the match.