| Rafael Nadal battles from behind to advance to Wimbledon Quarter Finals |
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| Written by Zico Kelly | |||||||
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Thursday, 05 July 2007
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 Rafael Nadal, the only man capable of giving Roger Federer a run for his money, pulled off a great fight back to beat Mikhail Youzhny in five sets and reach the Wimbledon quarter-finals. The Spaniard was overpowered by the Russian's scintillating flat ground strokes as he lost the first two sets without forcing a break point, before launching his comeback when he finally made the breakthrough early in the third set.Youzhny was slowed down by a back injury which required treatment during and after the third set, but it was Rafael Nadal’s quality which proved decisive. The Spaniard raced through the last three sets to win 4-6 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-2. Rafael Nadal is a small -155 odds favorite at BetUS.com in his next Wimbledon match up against Tomas Berdych, the seventh seed from the Czech Republic who defeated Sweden’s Jonas Bjorkman 6-4 6-0 6-7 6-0. Jonas Bjorkman reached the semi-finals last year but his run this year ended in drama as he was warned for ball abuse and refused to shake the hand of the umpire. Baghdatis will meet fourth seeded Serb Novak Djokovic for a place in the semi-finals after he beat Lleyton Hewitt 7-6 7-6 4-6 7-6 in a match lasting more than four hours. Djokovic won the three tie-breaks to reach his first Wimbledon quarter-final, crucially breaking back in the fourth set as Hewitt served for the set at 5-4. Elsewhere, Venus Williams eased into the last four with a straightforward 6-3 6-4 win over Svetlana Kuznetsova. The three-time champion answered fifth seed Kuznetsova's power game with some crushing returns and broke at 3-1 before serving out the first set. BetUS.com has posted Wimbledon odds on the Men's Quarter Final Match Ups on July 6th, 2007: 6:00 AM EST Match Ups Roger Federer: -4000 Juan Carlos Ferrero: +1100 Andy Roddick: -400 Richard Gasquet: +250 7:00 AM EST Match Ups Novak Djokovic: -150 Marcos Baghdatis: +110 Rafael Nadal: -155 Tomas Berdych: +115                        |
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| Last Updated ( Thursday, 05 July 2007 ) | |||||||