Nadal through to last eight
Nadal has never made it this far at the US Open before
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With qualifying matches for the 2008 European Championships taking place this weekend, Europe's domestic scene took a back seat. |  |
Monday, 04, Sep 2006 10:14
Second seed Rafael Nadal is through to the quarter-finals of the US Open after a 6-1 7-6 (7-3) 6-4 win over unseeded Czech Jiri Novak.
It is the first time the Spaniard has reached the last eight at Flushing Meadows but he endured few problems on his way to victory on the Arthur Ashe court.
Nadal will now play unseeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, who shocked sixth seed Tommy Robredo with a crushing 6-2 6-0 6-1 win.
Meanwhile, the 2000 champion Marat Safin continued his steady progress at this year's tournament with a straight sets win over Belgium's Olivier Rochus in one of the final third round ties.
Safin, who has not reached the quarter-finals since 2001, was dominant throughout and claimed a 6-3 6-2 6-3 win over the 26th seed.
His opponent in the fourth round will be Germany's Tommy Haas after the 14th seed got the better of American Robby Ginepri in an epic five-set battle.
Haas, who was eliminated by the 18th seed in the third round of the 2005 competition, threw away a two-set lead before finally getting by Ginepri thanks to a tie-break in the final set.
The German, who has never made it past the quarter-finals at the US Open, won 7-6 (7-1) 6-4 3-6 3-6 7-6(7-1).
Elsewhere, Andy Roddick helped revenge Andre Agassi after he sealed a straight-sets win over Benjamin Becker.
The unseeded German, who had ended Agassi's final tournament in the last round, was no match for the ninth seed, who took the game 6-3 6-4 6-3.