5/5/11

Tennis,"Rafael Nadal"

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Top seed Rafael Nadal and second seed Novak Djokovic remain on course for a mouth-watering Madrid Masters final showdown after both players extended their impressive winning runs on Wednesday.

World number one Nadal has not lost on his favored clay surface since his shock defeat to Robin Soderling in the 2009 French Open fourth round.

And he extended that remarkable streak to 35 matches with a comfortable 6-1 6-3 success over Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis.


Meanwhile, Djokovic has now won 28 consecutive matches in 2011 following his 6-3 6-4 victory over South African Kevin Anderson.

That success means the Serb is now just one win away from equalling the 29- match unbeaten run set by Ivan Lendl at the start of the 1986 season.

Defending champion Nadal now faces a thrilling-looking third round clash with Juan Martin del Potro, who thrashed Marin Cilic 6-3 6-0.
"I have a match that normally you wouldn't like to play in the last 16, you would normally like to play it a bit later, but this is the draw," Nadal told the official ATP Tour web site ahead of his showdown with the Argentine.

"He has a lot of control of the ball. If I manage to get him moving and to make him feel uncomfortable then I can hurt him.

"It's quite difficult to manage this because he's very tall and from the very back he can hit very good shots but it's true that I am in good form," continued the Spaniard, who has a 5-3 career record against Del Potro.

However, there was no easy ride for third seed Roger Federer, who took nearly three hours to wear down Feliciano Lopez 7-6 6-7 7-6 (9/7), firing 25 aces in the process.

Fourth seed Andy Murray was taken to three sets by Gilles Simon of France before the Briton triumphed 6-4 3-6 6-0, while fifth seed Soderling is also through courtesy of a 6-3 6-3 win over Santiago Giraldo of Colombia.

And on a day when all the favorites progressed in the men's draw, seventh seed Tomas Berdych also went through with a 6-4 6-0 success over Marcel Granollers.

Meanwhile, there was a major surprise in the third round of the women's section with second seed Vera Zvonareva losing 6-1 6-4 to 16th-seeded Czech Petra Kvitova.

In the other two women's matches played in Wednesday, there were wins for second round wins for sixth seed Li Na of China and unseeded Italian Roberta Vinci.

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