Britain’s Tim Henman fell to German qualifier Simon Greul at the $6,9-million-ATP and WTA event here on Monday as Russian Maria Sharapova and Japan’s Ai Sugiyama reached the quarterfinals.
Greul bounced back to eliminate Henman 0-6, 6-1, 7-5 in their third round tie while Sugiyama outlasted Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson 6-7 (4/7), 6-3, 6-2 and fourth seed Sharapova ousted compatriot Maria Kirilenko 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Henman dominated the first set but was overpowered in the second and sent packing in the third.
”No doubt the most bizarre I’ve ever played,” said Henman. ”I’m just sort of shocked, I think, to play the first set as I did and him to play that badly. I think I only lost four points in the first set.
”I certainly didn’t take anything for granted. I wanted to keep the pressure on. All of a sudden he was a different player. His level had gone from non-existent to playing some pretty good stuff in the space of a game.”
But Henman, who had eliminated Russian star Marat Safin and Australian Lleyton Hewitt in his first two Miami hardcourt matches, was on the down side of a stunning reversal of fortune.
”It certainly doesn’t sit well with me,” Henman said. ”The work that I did to get through those two matches, to lose this is pretty tough to swallow.”
Two seeded women failed to reach the final eight with losses on Monday.
A right ankle injury to Swiss seventh seed Patty Schnyder allowed Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova to advance by walkover while France’s Tatiana Golovin beat Russian sixth seed Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-1.
World number one Roger Federer, the defending champion, was to play Germany’s Tommy Haas in a later match. Haas pushed Federer to a fifth set during the Swiss star’s title run in January at Melbourne.
The Federer-Haas winner will face a fourth-round match against Russia’s Dmitry Tursunov, who defeated compatriot Igor Andreev, 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. – AFP
