Thursday 13 March 2014

Murray joined by Wawrinka on Indian Wells scrap heap

Australian Open champion Stanislas Wawrinka suffered his first loss of the year and joined Andy Murray in making an early exit from the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, but Roger Federer eased into the quarter-finals.

After winning his first 13 matches in 2014, Wawrinka's streak came to a shuddering halt when he was beaten 7-6(1) 4-6 6-1 by South AfricanKevin Anderson.
"It wasn't really on my mind that he had won Australia," said Anderson, whose next opponent is Federer.
"It feels great to beat somebody who obviously has just won a Grand Slam."
His surprise loss came just hours after Murray was knocked out by Canada's Milos Raonic, one of the biggest servers in men's tennis.
Despite winning the first set, Wimbledon champion Murray was unable to contain the raw power of Raonic, who triumphed 4-6 7-5 6-3 in a little over two hours.
Raonic had won two of his previous three matches against Briton Murray and he improved on his head-to-head record with another impressive display built around his booming serve.
He blasted 15 aces past his bewildered opponent, who is one of the best returners in the game, and won a staggering 83 per cent of points when he landed his first serve.
Murray did break Raonic's serve in the opening set and again in the deciding third to lead 2-1 but lost the next four games in a row against the 6ft 5in tall Canadian.
"To get broken two consecutive times in that situation isn't good enough. I played poor tennis at that stage. I didn't make enough balls and I missed some really easy shots," Murray said.
"It's tough to win matches like that, because against him, he obviously wins a lot of free points with his serve. So over the course of the set, if you give up enough unforced errors on basic shots, then with the amount of free points he gets on his serve, that's going to add up to a negative result."
Although he has not yet made it past the fourth round of any Grand Slam, the 23-year-old Raonic has been steadily climbing the rankings since he announced his arrival by winning the 2011 San Jose Open and being named as the ATP's newcomer of the year.
He won two more titles in 2012 and again in 2013 and made his first Masters finals in Montreal last year.
His next opponent in the quarter-finals will be Ukrainian giant killer Alexandr Dolgopolov who followed up his upset victory over Rafa Nadal on Monday with a comprehensive 6-2 6-4 drubbing of Italy's Fabio Fognini.
"I think the most important thing is obviously my serve and the beauty of that is nobody can affect me," Raonic said.
"The ball is in my hand, and I serve it up and I toss it up when I want to. It's going to be about controlling the centre of the court, sort of stepping up, and when I do get ahead in the points, staying ahead."
In a tournament full of surprises, Federer struck a blow for the old world order with a 6-4 6-4 win over German Tommy Haas.
The only player left in the men's draw with a higher ranking than world number eight Federer is Serbia's Novak Djokovic, who was due to play Marin Cilic in Wednesday's feature night match.
John Isner kept American hopes alive with a 7-6(3) 3-6 6-3 win over Spain's Fernando Verdascowhile Latvia's Ernests Gulbis defeated Spain's Roberto Bautista 7-6(0) 4-6 6-2.
A third Spaniard, Feliciano Lopez, was sent packing by Frenchman Julien Benneteau, losing 6-3 7-6(4).
BNP Paribas Open results
Fourth round
Julien Benneteau (France) beat Feliciano Lopez (Spain) 6-3 7-6(4)
7-Roger Federer (Switzerland) beat 11-Tommy Haas (Germany) 6-4 6-4
12-John Isner (U.S.) beat 30-Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 7-6(3) 3-6 6-3
17-Kevin Anderson (South Africa) beat 3-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) 7-6(1) 4-6 6-1
20-Ernests Gulbis (Latvia) beat Roberto Bautista (Spain) 7-6(0) 4-6 6-2
10-Milos Raonic (Canada) beat 5-Andy Murray (Britain) 4-6 7-5 6-3
28-Alexandr Dolgopolov (Ukraine) beat 13-Fabio Fognini (Italy) 6-2 6-4
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