London - Dinara Safina defeated Amelie Mauresmo 4-6, 6-3,
6-4 as the top seed made history by becoming the first player to win
a match with the new Wimbledon Centre court roof, which closed Monday
due to a rain shower.
A sprinkling of rain finally arrived to start the second week -
excuse enough for officials to close their new translucent toy and
allow the match to continue as an indoor contest.
Safina turned the tables after losing the first set and trailing a
break in the second. The number one also came back from 0-3 in the
third to deny 2006 champion Mauresmo the chance to continue her quest
for a second bite of the cherry at SW19.
'It very nice to play under the roof, you can't compare it with
anything,' said Safina, on Centre court for the firs time and a debut
quarter-finalist at the All England club.
'It got louder with the (15,000) crowd in there. But I didn't feel
any difference from an indoor match. Today I won, so everything was
perfect.'
When a light shower descended, officials took the decision to
close the new roof - unconfirmed estimated cost: 130 million dollars.
It took eight minutes to shut and another half an hour for
computerised humidity sensors to advise that conditions were
ready for play.
Safina led the next three seeds through, including both Williams
sisters.
Number two Serena beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 6-1 while third
seed Venus advanced over 13th seed Ana Ivanovic as the 2008 French
Open winner had to retire in pain with a thigh injury to hand over a
6-1, 0-1 victory to the American.
'I just only pay attention to what's going on on my side of the
net,' said Williams. 'But today I felt really sad for her actually.
She was really upset.
'This is Wimbledon. It's the last place you want to have an injury
that you can't overcome. So I'm wishing her a lot of luck in her
recovery.'
Ivanovic said she felt pain when she landed on a serve. 'It's most
disappointing thing to lose like this. I felt I didn't get a chance.'
Russian number four Elena Dementieva was untroubled by compatriot
Elena Vesnina 6-1, 6-3 while eighth seed Victoria Azarenka took out
Russian tenth seed Nadia Petrova 7-6 (7-5), 2-6, 6-3.
German Sabine Lisicki booked a surprise place in her first major
quarter-finals, with an upset of ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4,
6-4. Pole Agnieszka Radwanska ended the fairytale of American
qualifier Melanie Oudin 6-4, 7-5.
Roger Federer fired past Robin Soderling for the second time in
three weeks, 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) to reach the men's
quarter-finals on the back of an 11-0 record in the series as the
pair re-ran the recent French Open final.
Fourth seed Novak Djokovic took a quiet win against Dudi Sela 6-2,
6-4, 6-1 while Croatian Ivo Karlovic knocked out seventh seed
Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 7-6 (11-9) with 35 aces
and winning into a match with Federer.
Fedefrer is advancing in the business end of the event as he aims
to lift a sixth title in seven years and set a new all-time mark with
15 Grand Slam singles titles should he win the Sunday final again.
'Today was a serving contest, there were not a lot of rallies,'
said Federer. 'My form was great in first week. Today was a
dangerous match.
'I'm moving well, serving well, my rhythm from the baseline is
good. I'm just really, really pleased. I'm happy to be through four
Wimbledon matches and into the quarters.'
German Tommy Haas, the oldest man remaining in the field at age
31, reached the quarter-final for the first time in his career with a
defeat of Russian Igor Andreev 7-6 (10-8), 6-4, 6-4.
USA
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