Federer storms into semis
Montreal, Aug. 12: Swiss star Roger Federer outclassed Roberto Bautista Agut as he inched closer to his sixth title of the season with a 6-4, 6-4 win in the quarter-finals of the Montreal Masters on Friday.
Federer hammered five aces, made just two double faults and won 81 percent of his first serve points in the 68-minute centre court match. He dominated at the net, winning 21 of 25 points.
“It pays off playing aggressively here in Montreal, plus I feel comfortable at net, so why not spend some time there instead of slugging it out from the baseline,” Federer said.
Federer advances to the semi-finals where he will face Robin Haase of the Netherlands, who defeated Diego Schwartzman 46, 6-3, 6-3 earlier in the day.
Bautista Agut struggled on his serve as he was broken three times and won just 65 percent of his first serve points.
“Today, I felt that I didn’t get into the rhythm of the match and I didn’t feel the ball well,” he said. “Roger plays very fast and he didn’t want to rally with me, so he went for his shots.”
Federer posted his seventh consecutive win over the Spaniard and improved his season record to 34-2. He has a ATP Tour high five titles in 2017. He will face Dutchman Haas in just the second career meeting between the two. Federer’s chances of winning another title this season were given a boost when top seed Rafael Nadal was upset by world no. 143 Denis Shapovalov on Thursday.
Shapovalov, who needed a wild card to gain entry into the tournament, continued his cinderella run on Friday by rallying to beat Frenchman Adrian Mannarino 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Mannarino became the fourth established ATP player this week to fall at the hands of the 18-yearold left-handed Canadian.
Fourth seeded Alexander Zverev defeated South Africa’s Kevin Anderson in straight sets 7-5, 6-4 to set up a clash of rising stars with Shapovalov.
Zverev, 20, is the youngest player ranked in the top 20 in the world and Shapovalov became the youngest since 1990 when he reached the quarterfinals of the Masters 1000 event. Wozniacki topples top seed Pliskova Toronto: Caroline Wozniacki survived three rain delays to book her spot in the WTA Toronto tournament semi-final with a marathon 7-5, 6-7 (3), 6-4 victory over world no. 1 Karolina Pliskova on Friday.
The sixth seeded Wozniacki posted her first career win over a number-one player in seven tries as she blasted eight aces in the two-hour, 56-minute centre court match.
She next faces American Sloane Stephens, who saved three match points in the third set to oust Lucie Safarova 6-2, 1-6, 7-5 in their quarter-final.
Pliskova fired five aces but won just 45 per cent of her second-serve points.
“I thought she started off really strongly and she was attacking and playing really, really well,” Wozniacki said.
Pliskova started quickly by winning five of the first six games of the first set which was delayed at the start by rain.
Wozniacki then started to assert herself on defence and offence, moving Pliskova around the court to win six straight games to take the first set. Pliskova never recovered from that first set loss. From then on, it was a matter of Wozniacki wearing her opponent down by keeping the ball in play. “I think the biggest mistake was in the first set — so because of that, I think I lost,” Pliskova said. Wozniacki will have her hands full with Stephens, who reached the quarters with wins over 3rd seed Angelique Kerber and two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.