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Roddick grabs Shanghai ticket
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-22 10:50 PARIS-- American Andy Roddick became the sixth player to qualify for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai after beating No. 8-placed ATP 2008 Race rival Gilles Simon of France 6-3, 7-5 Thursday for a place in the Paris Masters quarterfinals.
Roddick needed five match points to record his 49th win of the season (49-16). "It's always an honor to qualify," Roddick said of the Tennis Masters Cup. "I think this is six straight years, so that's a good accomplishment. They put on a great event there, so I'm looking forward to it. "It shows consistency. A lot of times people dip down for a year or two and then kind of get back. So it's been a solid process, but I think I've gone about it the right way and picking and choosing my spots. I think that's helped me be ready or at least want to compete every time I go out on the court, and I think that many years is just a testament to being ready to compete maybe more than anything." The Seventh seed struck 15 aces and dropped 14 points on serve to record his second career win over No. 10 seed Simon, who must now wait to learn whether he will qualify for the prestigious circuit finale. Roddick has qualified for the Masters Cup for the sixth time in his career. He has reached the semifinals three times in 2003 and 2004 at Houston and last year in Shanghai. He qualified in 2005, but withdrew prior to the event due to a back injury. He will next meet Frenchman Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who recorded his second successive victory in three meetings over No. 3 seed Novak Djokovic of Serbia with a 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 win in one hour and 54 minutes. Tsonga, who captured his first ATP title over Djokovic in Bangkok last month, is 41 points behind No. 8-placed Simon in the ATP 2008 Race. Tsonga said that his performance had a little bit of everything. "I really played beautiful matches. Things are happening during those matches. There's a lot of intensity, sometimes frustration, sometimes a lot of joy, and I love tennis like that. "I think players are trying to find a solution against me, and lately they've been playing a lot on my backhand. For me, the more they hit on my backhand the more my backhand improves, thanks to them. It's just the fact that I play more backhands so it becomes better." Defending champion and No. 8 seed David Nalbandian continued his late season charge by knocking out ninth-seeded Argentine compatriot Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-0 in 67 minutes for a place in the Paris Masters quarterfinals. It was the pair's third meeting in as many weeks. Del Potro, currently No. 7 in the ATP 2008 Race with 369 points, must now wait to see if he has done enough to qualify for Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai. Nalbandian, who has 300 points and is placed No. 13, can qualify dependent on other players' results. Elsewhere, top seed Rafael Nadal of Spain beat France's Gael Monfils 6-3, 6-2 and second seed Roger Federer of Switzerland beat Marin Cilic from Croatia 6-3, 6-4 to reach quarterfinals. There were also third round wins for Russian Nikolay Davydenko, fourth seed Andy Murray of Britain and American James Blake. |
