Men’s No. 2 seed Rafael Nadal advanced to the semifinals at the U.S. Open with a straight-set victory over No. 19 Tommy Robredo on Wednesday, taking the match by a score of 6-0, 6-2, 6-2. It was a relatively easy victory for Nadal, who managed to wrap up the first set in just 21 minutes. Robredo offered some resistance in the following sets, but it wasn’t much.
U.S. Open 2013 bracket update: Rafael Nadal, Victoria Azarenka advance to semifinals Wednesday night
Rafael Nadal and Victoria Azarenka, the two No. 2 seeds in the singles brackets, advanced to the semifinals at the U.S. Open on Wednesday.
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In the other night match, women’s No. 2 seed Victoria Azarenka cruised to victory and her sixth semifinal in the past eight Grand Slams with a victory over unseeded Daniela Hantuchova, 6-2, 6-3. Azarenka converted on seven of her 11 break point opportunities, and easily took this matchup.
In other action on the day, men’s No. 8 seed Richard Gasquet managed a minor upset over No. 4 David Ferrer, winning a five-set thriller 6-3, 6-1, 4-6, 2-6, 6-3. Most thought Gasquet was done after Ferrer battled back to push it to five sets, thanks to the fact that Gasquet is 7-12 in matches that go a full five sets.
Couple that with the fact that Gasquet hasn’t been to a Grand Slam semifinal since 2007 (this being just the second major quarterfinal of his career), all signs pointed to the higher-seeded Ferrer to pull off the comeback. But Ferrer played a poor fifth set, including a double-fault on a break point, and was eliminated.
Also earlier in the day, unseeded Italian Flavia Pennetta took down her seeded compatriot, No. 10 Roberta Vinci, 6-4, 6-1. Making her first ever Grand Slam quarterfinal, Pennetta played a very solid game, coolly fighting off break points and making short work of Vinci in a 24-minute second set.
Pennetta will take on Azarenka in the semifinals alongside the matchup between No. 5 Na Li and No. 1 Serena Williams. Nadal will take on Gasquet in the semis, while the other half has to be decided on Thursday, when Novak Djokovic will take on Mikhail Youzhny and Andy Murray will take on Stanislas Wawrinka.
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