TENNIS - AUSTRALIANS ADVANCE AT CANADIAN OPEN .
TORONTO 1996-08-22
It was Australia Day at the $ 2 million Canadian Open on Thursday as three Aussies reached the quarter-finals with straight-set victories .
Unseeded Patrick Rafter recorded the most noteworthy result as he upset sixth-seeded American MaliVai Washington 6-2 6-1 in just 50 minutes .
Todd Woodbridge , who defeated Canadian Daniel Nestor 7-6 ( 7-2 ) 7-6 ( 7-4 ) , and Mark Philippoussis , a 6-3 6-4 winner over Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic , also advanced and will meet in Friday 's quarter-finals .
Third-seeded Wayne Ferreira of South Africa defeated Tim Henman of Britain 6-4 6-4 after a three-hour evening rain delay and fifth-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden won his third-round match , eliminating Petr Korda of the Czech Republic 6-3 6-4 .
Ferreira and Enqvist play in a Friday night quarter-final .
Two Americans , seventh seed Todd Martin and unseeded Alex O'Brien , will meet on Friday after winning matches on Thursday .
Martin overcame Cedric Pioline of France 2-6 6-2 6-4 and O'Brien beat Mikael Tillstrom of Sweden 6-3 2-6 6-3 .
" If you really look at the match , " said the 12th-ranked Washington after losing to the 70th-ranked Rafter , " I never really got a chance to play because he was serving big and getting in close to the net .
" He was also able to handle my serve pretty easily because my ( first ) service percentage was only in the 40s .
Put those two things together and you get a loss . "
Rafter missed 10 weeks after wrist surgery earlier this year and the time away from tennis has given him a new perspective .
" Before when I was on tour , I always felt I had to be in bed by 9:30 or 10 o'clock and I had to be up at a certain time , " Rafter said . "
Now I can go to bed at at midnight or wake up at seven in the morning .
I just do n't have as many set routines and it 's made me a happier person . "
Martin was pleased with his victory over Pioline , his first in five meetings with the 11th-ranked Frenchman . "
It 's always difficult to win a match when you lose the first set , especially against someone you have never beaten , " he said .
" I got more aggressive in the second and third sets and the wind picked up and that also affected things because Cedric definitely went off a little bit . "
The 26-year-old O'Brien , who won the ATP Tour stop in New Haven last week , has now won 18 of his last 20 matches , dating back to qualifying rounds in Los Angeles in late July .
He ranks 76th after being 285th four weeks ago .
" I feel I 'm hitting the ball well even though I 'm having more mental letdowns than I did last week , " O'Brien said . "
But I 'm still competing well . "
" I got a lot of first serves in , " said Enqvist about his victory over Korda . "
I did n't miss that many shots and he was making the mistakes . "
Still marvelling at an exciting 64-stroke rally he won in the last game of his second-round match against Javier Sanchez of Spain on Tuesday , Enqvist joked , " Today against Petr there were about 64 strokes in the whole match .
It was mostly short points . "