Reuters
New York, Sept 6: Roger Federer and Andy Murray strolled into the fourth round of the US Open Saturday but shared the Flushing Meadows spotlight with tenacious underdog Donald Young.
Second seed Federer took another step towards a sixth US Open title with an efficient 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 win over Philipp Kohlschreiber while third seed Murray followed him into the fourth round with a clinical 6-3, 6-2, 7-5 victory against Brazilian Thomaz Bellucci.
It was another leisurely afternoon on Arthur Ashe Stadium court for Federer, who has yet to drop a set, though he lost his serve for the first time in the tournament as Kohlschreiber broke him twice.
The Swiss great has also invented a new attacking ploy which is taking everybody by surprise. It involves chipping and charging on a second serve, starting from a position inside the baseline and ending with a quick sprint to the service box.
“We sort of came up with the name, you know, ‘Sneak attack by Roger,’ ‘Sabre.’ Call it ‘Fed Attack,’ call it whatever you want, but I thought it was kind of funny,” said Federer.
Federer, who had sprinted through his first two matches with the loss of only nine games, next meets big-serving American 13th seed John Isner, who advanced when Czech Jiri Vesely retired with a neck injury when trailing 6-3, 6-4.
“I think I won the big points today (Saturday),” said Federer. “I served well when I had to at the end.”
Federer’s Swiss compatriot Stan Wawrinka also took the quick route following Federer into the last 16 by breezing past Belgian Ruben Bemelmans 6-3, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4.
The aggressive Swiss fifth seed belted 41 winners at Louis Armstrong Stadium to make up for 32 unforced errors against Bemelmans, who was appearing in the third round of a grand slam for the first time.
Richard Gasquet also wasted little time, the 12th seeded Frenchman romping to a 6-4, 6-3, 6-1 decision over a drained Australian Bernard Tomic.
The Frenchman will next play Tomas Berdych, a semi-finalist in 2012, after the latter beat Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (9-7), 6-3, 6-3.
Young, once hailed as the next great American tennis player, is finally showing that potential at 26 to an excited hometown audience fighting back from two sets down to claim a 4-6, 0-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2, 6-4 victory over 22nd seed Viktor Troicki of Serbia. He will face Wawrinka in the fourth round.
Sania, Bops shine
New York: Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna notched up contrasting victories with their respective doubles partners to reach the round of 16 at the US Open here Saturday. Top seeds Sania and Martina Hingis streamrolled Swiss Timea Bacsinszky and Chinese Taipei’s Chia-Jung Chuang 6-1 6-1 in a an hour. In men’s doubles, sixth seeds Bopanna Florin Mergea beat Poland’s Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Santiago Gonzalez of Mexico 6-3, 7-6 (7-4).