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In an eventful day at the Cincinnati Masters top seeds survived a major scare as Andy Murray was defeated by Mardy Fish 6-7 (7-9) 6-1 7-6 (7-5) in intense heat in the last eight of the Cincinnati Masters. Murray who had to battle very hard to see off Jeremy Chardy and Ernst Gulbis in the earlier matches got off to a good start but he struggled with the midday heat as Fish managed to claw back and register a three set victory. Fish will now face the winner of the quarter-final match between Andy Roddick and Novak Djokovic. Murray’s game was not at it’s best and particularly his serve was disappointing. The Scot showed signs of weariness as he was handed a third consecutive game in the afternoon. Murray who won at the Rogers Cup last week was a spent force in the second set as Mardy Fish capitulated to take the match to the decider. Murray showed his resilience in the third set which went to tie-break but ultimately succumbed to the brute strength of Fish’s ground strokes.
Robin Soderling was beaten in three sets in his match against Andy Roddick 6-4 6-7 (9/7) 7-6 (7/5) who will play Djokovic in the last-eight. Federer was given a walkover win after Philipp Kohlschreiber pulled out of their match with a shoulder injury. Sixth seed Nikolay Davydenko will play Federer in the next round after the Russian recovered from losing the first set to beat David Ferrer 4-6 6-3 7-5.
Earlier top ranked Rafael Nadal survived a major scare and was facing a match point when he rallied past Julien Benneteau to progress through to the last-eight 5-7 7-6 (8/6) 6-2 in two hours and 48 minutes. Nadal will meet Marcos Baghdatis in the quarterfinals.
In the doubles Leander Paes and Czech Lukas Dlouhy yet again stumbled at the second round, crashing out of the Cincinnati Masters following a straight-set defeat against Mardy Fish and Mark Knowles. Mahesh Bhupathi remains the lone remaining Indian at the Cincinnati Masters.
