MMMM 2006 : 2006


(Review day 3) Nadal storms past Fish to start Madrid title defence

Rafael Nadal showed a complete recovery from last week's upset loss in Stockholm as he crushed US qualifier Mardy Fish 6-4, 6-2 to advance in his first match at the Madrid Masters Wednesday.


The Spanish second seed, making a title defence of the crown he won a year ago, moved through in less than 90 minutes with 19 winners.

Fish has now lost to the Spaniard in three matches this season, the last on grass at Queen's in Britain.

Nadal moved into a Thursday match against German Tommy Haas, who defeated Slovak Dominik Hrbaty 6-3, 7-6 (8-6).

"It's a very special sensation to be back here with another full stadium," Nadal said. "I'm very impressed."

Nadal said he would face a tough match against Haas, whom he beat in Cincinnati in August.

"He's a very complete player, he has all the shots," said Nadal, who was beaten in his opening match in Sweden by Joachim Johansson. "I have to play my best. I played today at a good level, I hope I can do the same against (Haas)."

Nadal's victory was his 55th of the season against nine losses. The double French Open winner is in the hunt for his first title since Roland Garros in June, his fifth of 2006.

Earlier Wednesday, Andy Murray stunned world number 3 Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to delay the Croatian's likely ascension to a spot in the year-end tournament of the world's top eight player's.

Murray claimed the biggest scalp of the week so far as he defeated last weekend's champion at Vienna.

"It was a great win. He's probably the second-best indoors in the world after (Roger) Federer," Murray said. "To beat the No 3 is huge for me. To win against him on his best surface is very exciting."

The British teenager forced Ljubicic to wait another week to see if he qualifies for November's Masters Cup in Shanghai, where he would have needed a final to have clinched at the weekend behind Federer and Nadal.

Ljubicic lost the Madrid title match a year ago to Nadal, afterleading two sets to love before the Spaniard turned the momentum in dramatic fashion.

"It's more exciting to play someone in the Top 10, a win like today is a great test for my game," Murray said.

Ljubicic was not the only titleholder from last week to crash at the first hurdle after a bye.

Stockholm champion James Blake was dispatched 6-43-67-6 (7-5) by Belgian Kristof Vliegen Wednesday. Like Ljubicic, Blake - joint sixth in the race to Shanghai - must wait out the week as rivals for the spots in the eig t-man field continue to play.

"When you're serving at 6-5 you should win the match," Blake said of a disappointing third set. "This is not the way you want to go out."

Moscow winner Nikolay Davydenko also went down Tuesday, another victim of the huge Joachim Johansson serve, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3.

Struggling Thai Paradorn Srichaphan lost his second match to Fernando Gonzalez in six years after dropping a close first set in a 7-5, 6-7 (5-7), 6-4 exit.

The 27-year-old must now rally in his final 2006 events in order to avoid a negative season finish after dropping to 27-30. He first lost to Gonzalez in Florida in 2000.

Paradorn, a semi-finalist over the past month in Beijing and at home in Bangkok, converted on only a fifth of his ten break point chances, while hitting 53 unforced errors and losing serve four times in 2 hours, 24 minutes.

American Robby Ginepri beat Croatian 12th seed Mario Ancic 7-6 (7- 5), 7-6 (7-5) for a place in the third round, a result which put provisional tenth seed Ancic's Masters Cup campaign in danger.





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