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Nadal defeat completes seeds misery
Andreas Seppi completed a clean sweep of seeds from the Rotterdam Open with a fighting 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 comeback win over world number two Rafael Nadal.
- Agence France-Presse
- Updated: March 26, 2008 09:44 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Rotterdam:
The Italian, from the German-speaking north of the country, celebrated his 24th birthday with the upset win which kept Nadal from gaining ground on Roger Federer in the Spaniard's long-odds hope of someday taking the number one ranking.
"To beat Nadal like this is something special," said the winner, who knocked out 2004 champion Lleyton Hewitt, saving a match point on Wednesday.
"I played every point at 110 per cent, this was one of my best matches."
The world number 42 had booked a flight out of the country on Wednesday and now has another to arrange after reaching the last eight in the wake of two losses on clay to world number two Nadal.
Nadal, who is now without a first title since last July when he won on clay in Stuttgart, led the way down the road to disaster at the Ahoy stadium as second seed Nikolay Davydenko and number three David Ferrer also exited.
They were joined by number five Tomas Berdych leaving a quarter-final lineup completely stripped of seeds.
Davydenko, a semi-finalist at the last two editions, was treated for an upper arm problem in the second set in a 6-3, 7-5 loss to Frenchman Michael Llodra.
The Russian, who converted on only one of eight break point chances, said the time off would now give him time to rest for the start of the money-spiinng Dubai event a week from Monday.
German qualifier Mischa Zverev surprised himself with a victory over Spain's Ferrer 6-2, 7-5.
"This has to be my best-ever win," said the 20-year-old winner from Hamburg. "I had expected to be home by tonight."
Zverev will be playing in the last eight for only the third time in his career after Bangkok in 2006 and Newport on grass last summer.
He will come up against the huge serve of Croatian Ivo Karlovic, who fired 17 aces in a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Berdych in less than 90 minutes.
Italian Andreas Seppi completed a clean sweep of seeds from the Rotterdam Open with a fighting 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 comeback win over world number two Rafael Nadal on Thursday.The Italian, from the German-speaking north of the country, celebrated his 24th birthday with the upset win which kept Nadal from gaining ground on Roger Federer in the Spaniard's long-odds hope of someday taking the number one ranking.
"To beat Nadal like this is something special," said the winner, who knocked out 2004 champion Lleyton Hewitt, saving a match point on Wednesday.
"I played every point at 110 per cent, this was one of my best matches."
The world number 42 had booked a flight out of the country on Wednesday and now has another to arrange after reaching the last eight in the wake of two losses on clay to world number two Nadal.
Nadal, who is now without a first title since last July when he won on clay in Stuttgart, led the way down the road to disaster at the Ahoy stadium as second seed Nikolay Davydenko and number three David Ferrer also exited.
They were joined by number five Tomas Berdych leaving a quarter-final lineup completely stripped of seeds.
Davydenko, a semi-finalist at the last two editions, was treated for an upper arm problem in the second set in a 6-3, 7-5 loss to Frenchman Michael Llodra.
The Russian, who converted on only one of eight break point chances, said the time off would now give him time to rest for the start of the money-spiinng Dubai event a week from Monday.
German qualifier Mischa Zverev surprised himself with a victory over Spain's Ferrer 6-2, 7-5.
"This has to be my best-ever win," said the 20-year-old winner from Hamburg. "I had expected to be home by tonight."
Zverev will be playing in the last eight for only the third time in his career after Bangkok in 2006 and Newport on grass last summer.
He will come up against the huge serve of Croatian Ivo Karlovic, who fired 17 aces in a 6-4, 6-4 defeat of Berdych in less than 90 minutes.
Topics mentioned in this article
Tennis Andy Roddick Lukas Dlouhy Rohan Bopanna Leander Paes Aisam-Ul-Haq Qureshi Maria Sharapova
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