There were straight sets victories for seven entrants to the Rogers Cup quarterfinals at Montreal on Thursday. Only Frenchman Jeremy Chardy had to struggle against Croatia’s Ivo Karlovic. No.1 seed Novak Djokovic needed just 54 minutes to dispose of USA’s Jack Sock and no.2 seed Andy Murray defeated Gilles Muller of Luxembourg in little over an hour. Japan’s Kei Nishikori and Rafael Nadal also had cakewalks of victories, which paved the way for a quarterfinal showdown between them. Others easing into the round-of-eight were Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, John Isner and Ernests Gulbis. The QF line-up at Toronto was also decided with Serena Williams, Simona Halep, Ana Ivanovic, Agnieszka Radwanska, Sara Errani, Roberta Vinci, Lesia Tsurenko and Belinda Bencic all reaching the last eight.
Novak Djokovic, who has won the Rogers Cup three times; had no trouble in his 6-2, 6-1 victory over Jack Sock of USA. In a largely one-sided match, Djokovic broke the 22-year-old American four times winning 55 points to Sock’s 32. The Serbian will face Latvia’s Ernests Gulbis, who defeated USA’s Donald Young 6-4, 6-4. No.2 seed Andy Murray outplayed Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 6-3, 6-2. Murray broke the Luxembourgian 4 times to march into the quarterfinals. For a place in the semifinals, the Scot will take on defending champion Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who defeated Australia’s Bernard Tomic 7-6, 6-3.
Another three-time Rogers Cup winner, Rafael Nadal advanced to the quarterfinal by scoring a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny. Nadal didn’t drop his serve in the match and fired 20 winners to the Russian’s 14. Nadal has set up a quarterfinal duel with Japan’s Kei Nishikori, who defeated Belgium’s no.13 seed David Goffin, 6-4, 6-3. The Japanese broke Goffin early in the second set and once more in the second to advance easily into the quarterfinal. USA’s John Isner got rid of the dangerous Australian Nick Kyrgios 7-5, 6-3 to set up the quarterfinal clash with Jeremy Chardy of France. Chardy had a particularly hard time against Croatia’s big-serving Ivo Karlovic. The Croat boomed 18 aces but couldn’t match Chardy in second set tiebreak.
In Toronto, defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland was driven to three sets by Frenchwoman Alize Cornet before finally coming through 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. In the quarterfinal Radwanska has to deal with no.2 seed Romania’s Simona Halep. In her third round match, Halep was stretched to three sets by Germany’s Angelique Kerber but the Romanian finally came through with a 6-3, 5-7, 6-4 victory. No.1 seed Serena Williams defeated no.16 seed Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-2. Despite the innocuous looking score-line, Serena still took more than an hour before the match could be completed. For a place in the semifinals, Serena will play against Italy’s Roberta Vinci, who defeated Russia’s Daria Gavrilova 6-4, 6-3 in her third round match.
Former world no.1 Victoria Azarenka lost 5-7, 3-6 against no.15 seed Sara Errani of Italy. The Italian will play against Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenkoin the quarterfinal. In her third round match, Tsurenko defeated Germany’s Carina Witthoeft 6-3, 6-4. Serbia’s no.5 seed Ana Ivanovic also made it to the quarters by defeating Slovenian qualifier Polona Hercog 6-2, 6-3. Ivanovic’s quarterfinal opponent will be Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic, who outlasted Germany’s Sabine Lisicki 6-1, 1-6, 7-6 in a relatively tough encounter. In doubles, Wimbledon champions and top seeds Martina Hingis of Switzerland and Sania Mirza of India entered the quarterfinals with 6-3, 6-2 victory over Germany’s Julia Georges and Poland’s Klaudia Jans-Ignacik. For the place in Final Four, Hingis/Mirza will take on Taiwan’s Hao-Ching Chan/Ying-Jan Chan, who prevailed over Spain’s Anabel Medina Garrigues/Arantxa Parra Santonja.
