Federer wins as US Open hit by record injury woe
NEW YORK—Five-time winner Roger Federer and women’s top seed Caroline Wozniacki reached the US Open last 16 on Saturday as the injury curse which has swept through the Grand Slam claimed a record 18th victim.
Federer reached the fourth round for a 30th straight major, a run which began at Wimbledon in 2004, with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over Croatia’s 27th seed Marin Cilic.
The third-seeded Swiss plays either Argentina’s Juan Monaco or Tommy Haas of Germany for a place in the quarter-finals.
Wozniacki, the runner-up to Kim Clijsters in 2009, and still searching for an elusive first Grand Slam title, made the last 16 with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over America’s world number 103 Vania King.
The Dane next faces either 15th-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 champion, or Uzbekistan’s Akgul Amanmuradova.
“It’s great to be through. I was fighting and getting a lot of balls back. It was windy out there so it was quite difficult to play,” said Wozniacki, who has collected six tour titles in 2011.
Meanwhile, Czech ninth seed Tomas Berdych and Marcel Granollers, the Spanish 31st seed, took the tournament injury toll to a record 18 when they quit their third round matches.
Ten injury retirements have come in the men’s singles, four in the women’s while the other four were attributed to mid-tournament walkovers or lucky losers taking the places of main draw players who pulled out on the eve of the event.
The previous record for retirements was 12 at Wimbledon in 2008.
Berdych was suffering from a right shoulder injury and needed treatment at the end of the first set against Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic, which he lost 6-4, and then called it quits when he was down 5-0 in the second.
Granollers was trailing Spanish compatriot and 2003 runner-up Juan Carlos Ferrero 6-1, 4-3 when he brought proceedings to a halt with a stomach strain.
Tipsarevic and Ferrero will meet for a quarter-final place.
Berdych, 25, said he first felt the injury in his Cincinnati Masters quarter-final win over Federer two weeks ago before it caused him to quit his semi-final against Novak Djokovic.
“I already knew there was a problem. I had it in Cincinnati, so it was a case of just trying,” he said.
“I was lucky to finish the match against Roger and I felt it here again in the last round. So I didn’t hit on Friday, I just got treatment and tried to relax it.”
Also going through in early third round action was 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, twice a quarter-finalist at Flushing Meadows.
The Italian seventh seed saved a match point before defeating South Africa’s Chanelle Scheepers 5-7, 7-6 (7/5), 6-3.
Schiavone will face Russian 17th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who beat Serbian 11th seed Jelena Jankovic, the 2008 runner-up, 6-4, 6-4.
German 10th seed Andrea Petkovic made the last 16 for the second successive year with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Italian 18th seed Roberta Vinci 6-4, 6-0.
She will face Carla Suarez Navarro who put out fellow Spaniard Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-0, 6-4.
Later Saturday, men’s top seed Djokovic eyes his 60th win in 62 matches this year when he tackles Russian veteran Nikolay Davydenko, a semi-finalist in 2006 and 2007.
Djokovic has lost just three games in his first two rounds as he bids to win a first US Open title and add to the Australian Open and Wimbledon crowns he has already collected in his record-breaking year.
Three-time women’s champion Serena Williams takes a 5-1 career record over Belarusian fourth seed Victoria Azarenka into their third round encounter.
Williams has dropped just three games so far at this year’s event.
In a tournament which saw former winner Maria Sharapova, French Open champion Li Na and Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova all fail to get beyond the second round, the American is now the favorite to capture a fourth US Open.
