Federer, teen titans seek US Open quarter-final spots

NEW YORK—World number one Roger Federer, chashing his 12th Grand Slam title and fourth US Open crown in a row, makes a bid for the quarter-finals Monday along with a host of teen upstarts in the women’s draw.
Federer will face Spanish left-hander Feliciano Lopez in the men’s night feature match at Arthur Ashe Stadium on the US Labor Day holiday as his record all-time run for men or women atop the rankings enters its 188th week.
The 26-year-old Swiss star is trying to close the gap on the all-time record of 14 Grand Slam titles won by Pete Sampras and become the first man to win the US title four times in a row since Bill Tilden’s run from 1920 to 1925.
Lopez, who has lost all four prior meetings with Federer, is ranked 60th, making the 25-year-old lefthander the first rival ranked higher than 120th that Federer has faced in the Flushing Meadows fortnight.
Federer is seeking his 25th victory in a row at the US Open, including a walkover on his way to the 2004 title.
With a 49-18 career record against lefties, Federer has lost to only one southpaw in the past 4 1/2 years - Spanish world number two Rafael Nadal, who beat him in the French Open final and pushed him to five sets in the Wimbledon final.
Federer won his 50th career title last month at Cincinnati. Lopez, one of a record four Spaniards in the men’s final 16, won his lone title came at Vienna in 2004.
US fifth seed Andy Roddick, who lost to Federer in last year’s US Open final, could book a quarter-final rematch with a victory over Czech ninth seed Tomas Berdych, who lost to Roddick in a Davis Cup tie earlier this year.
South Korean Lee Hyung-Taik will try to become the first man or woman from his homeland to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final when he faces Russian fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko.
Lee, the oldest man remaining in the men’s draw at 31, has already matched his best career Slam showing, that coming in his Slam debut as a qualifier at the 2000 US Open.
But the odds are stacked against Lee. He is 0-6 against the world top 10 in Slams and has not won four ATP-level matches in a row since June of 2004.
The only other Korean to go so deep in a Slam draw was Lee Duk-Hee, who reached the fourth round of the women’s 1981 US Open tournament before losing to Hana Mandlikova 6-1, 6-0.
US sixth seed James Blake, who lost to Federer in the Cincinnati final, tries to match his best Slam showing and reach the final eight against German 10th seed Tommy Haas. On the women’s side, the unheralded teens who toppled top seeds get their chance to advance to the quarter-finals.
Polish 18-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska, who ousted second seed Maria Sharapova, faces Israel’s Shahar Peer and Hungarian 18-year-old Agnes Szavay, who ousted seventh seed Nadia Petrova, will face Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko. Two Russian seeds remain in the title hunt.
Svetlana Kuznetsova, the 2004 US Open winner and only past champion in her half of the draw, faces Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Russian sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze, who ousted India’s Sania Mirza, meets Austrian 16-year-old Tamira Paszek.—Agencies