FEDERER SURVIVES TO REACH TORONTO QUARTERFINALS, REST OF THE TOP FOUR SEEDS FALL BY RICKY DIMON

Written by: Staff on 7th August 2014

FEDERER SURVIVES TO REACH TORONTO QUARTERFINALS, REST OF THE TOP FOUR SEEDS FALL BY RICKY DIMON

epa04345190 Swiss player Roger Federer serves to Croatia's Marin Cilic in their third round match in the Rogers Cup mens tennis tournament in Toronto, Canada, 07 August 2014. EPA/WARREN TODA |

Roger Federer capped off an otherwise disappointing day for the top players in the world by outlasting Marin Cilic 7-6(5), 6-7(3), 6-4 on Thursday night during third-round action at the Rogers Cup. Fededer needed seven match points over two hours and 39 minutes of play to book a spot in the quarterfinals.

Neither man could break serve a single time until 4-4 in the third set, but Federer had a golden chance–or more like “chances,” plural–almost an hour earlier with his opponent serving at 4-5 in the second. Cilic faced six match points but saved all of them and eventually took the middle frame of play in a tiebreaker. The Croat seemed to be on his way to another ‘breaker in the third, but he was broken from 40-0 up in the ninth game.

Had Federer lost, the four top seeds all would have bowed out of Toronto on Thursday. The most surprising of all was Novak Djokovic’s loss–an emphatic one, at that–to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. The Frenchman cruised 6-2, 6-2 in a mere one hour and three minutes, ending a streak of 18 consecutive sets dropped to Djokovic.

“Congratulations to Jo,” the world No. 1 said. “He played some great tennis; served very well. He was obviously the better player on the court. I [didn’t play] even close to what I intended before going to the court. Just nothing was going; no baseline, no serve, no return. [It was] a very bad day; very poor performance. Couldn’t do much.”

No. 3 seed Stanislas Wawrinka also did not do much, as he went down to Kevin Anderson 7-6(8), 7-5. Wawrinka had a set point on his own serve in the opening tiebreaker, but he could not convert. This is Anderson’s second win over Wawrinka in 2014. The South African previously handed Wawrinka his first setback of the year after the Swiss had gotten off to a 13-0 start.

“Playing him before and playing some of these guys a bit more regularly over the last few years definitely helps,” Anderson explained. “A little more experience in the bank. Often you get a few ups and downs; today I felt I played a really level match throughout.”

Fourth seed Tomas Berdych crashed out to Feliciano Lopez 3-6, 6-3, 6-4. Next up for Lopez is home favorite Milos Raonic, a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 winner over Julien Benneteau.

Ricky contributes to 10sballs.com and also maintains his own tennis website, The Grandstand.

Topics: Feliciano Lopez, Jo Wilfried Tsonga, Kevin Anderson, Marin Cilic, Novak Djokovic, Ricky Dimon, Roger Federer, Rogers Cup, Stanislas Wawrinka, Tennis, Tomas Berdych, Toronto

Follow 10SBALLS.COM on:

Facebook:

Twitter:

10sBalls_com says:

August 7, 2014 at 10:02 pm

@rogerfederer SURVIVES TO REACH @rogerscupto QUARTERFINALS, REST OF THE TOP FOUR SEEDS FALL BY @RD_Tennistalk- http://t.co/2Tucedb1S2 #atp
RD_Tennistalk says:

August 8, 2014 at 5:45 am

RT @10sBalls_com: @rogerfederer SURVIVES TO REACH @rogerscupto QUARTERFINALS, REST OF THE TOP FOUR SEEDS FALL BY @RD_Tennistalk- http://t.c…
xababafr says:

August 8, 2014 at 5:56 am

RT @10sBalls_com: @rogerfederer SURVIVES TO REACH @rogerscupto QUARTERFINALS, REST OF THE TOP FOUR SEEDS FALL BY @RD_Tennistalk- http://t.c…