Tsonga shows the door to Federer,again

Novak Djokovic had a good day at the Rogers Cup,winning in straight sets then watching Roger Federer join Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray as an early casualty.

Novak Djokovic had a good day at the Rogers Cup,winning in straight sets then watching Roger Federer join Rafael Nadal and Andy Murray as an early casualty. The 24-year-old Serb kept up his strong season with a 7-5,6-3 victory over Marin Cilic of Croatia to reach the quarterfinals,when he will take on Gael Monfils,who progressed with a 3-6,7-6 0,7-6 5 win over Viktor Troicki. He8217;s now the last of the top four seeds left in the tournament after No. 3 Federer was beaten by 13th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga 7-6 3,4-6,6-1. The other seeded winners were Mardy Fish,Tomas Berdych,Nicolas Almagro and Stanislaw Wawrinka while Richard Gasquet was among the losers.

In his second match since taking over the No. 1 ranking with a victory at Wimbledon four weeks ago,Djokovic broke the lanky Cilic8217;s heavy serve twice in the second set to improve to 50-1 this year _ including 26-0 on hard courts. He beat another former top-10 player,Nikolay Davydenko,in straight sets in the second round. Both of the matches I8217;ve played here were against good players,but I didn8217;t get any rhythm in either match,8221; Djokovic said. Conditions were quite different today. There was a lot of wind. It wasn8217;t a beautiful match to play or watch,but I guess in the right moments I kept the ball in the court to make my opponent make unforced errors. I was just more patient and played well,so I guess that8217;s the positive.8221;

Federer,who turned 30 on Monday,was playing for the first time since losing to Tsonga in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. Tsonga _ who also beat Federer,then ranked No. 1,in the quarterfinals here in 2009 _ dominated the third set with strong serves and quick groundstrokes,and Federer found himself unable to match the Frenchman. Tsonga made amazing shots,8221; Federer said. I don8217;t think I played bad,but I really didn8217;t have a good start to the third set,which didn8217;t help.8221;

Ivan Dodig,the 41st-ranked Croat who beat Nadal,had little left a day later as he was beaten 6-1,6-4 by unseeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic. Tipsarevic will face seventh-seeded Tomas Berdych in the quarter-finals on Friday. He is 2-0 in his career against the Czech. Berdych downed Ivo Karlovic 6-3,7-6 2.

Switzerland8217;s Wawrinka ousted South Africa8217;s Kevin Anderson who had eliminated Murray in the second round 6-4,4-6,6-4 and his next opponent will be American Fish,who defeated Latvia8217;s Ernests Gulbis 4-6,6-3,6-4. Djokovic was not overly surprised at the early eliminations of Nadal,Federer and Murray,or Thurday8217;s results at the women8217;s Rogers Cup in Toronto where Maria Sharapova and French Open champion Li Na lost.

For most of the top players who don8217;t play for a few weeks it8217;s normal to expect that the opening matches of the tournament will be tricky,8221; Djokovic said. You8217;re still trying to find the rhythm,trying to get used to the conditions and getting into tournament mode.

But it8217;s normal to have those breaks in a year. We had seven months of consistent competition,week after week. The schedule is so demanding that even these couple of weeks off is like a dream come true. 8221;