Montreal, Aug 08: Roger Federer pulled into the lead in the season points chase Friday as Spanish second seed Juan Carlos Ferrero was tumbled out in the third round of the 2.45-million-dollar Montreal Masters, a 6-3, 7-5 victim of Karol Kucera. Ferrero gave up his slim five-point margin in the table, with Federer's 6-4, 6-3 win earlier against Tommy Robredo giving him the top of the table.
Slovak Kucera broke six times to insure the upset win, with Ferrero committing 19 unforced errors.
Sixth seed Andy Roddick won his second match in two months against France's Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 6-3, the same scoreline he produced two months ago in a victory over the ninth seed in the Queen's Club final.
Roddick, who lost the Canadian final last year to Guillermo Canas, improved his record in Canada to 11-2 as he next faces Kucera in the quarter-finals. Andre Agassi and Germany's Rainer Schuetter set up a repeat of January's Australian Open final as both advanced into the last eight.
Agassi, the top-seeded world number 1, survived an early shock from upset-minded Canadian Sebastien Larose, the world number 314.
But the challenger, willed on by an eager home crowd, felt the full brunt of an agassi come-back effort as the 33-year-old rallied from 1-4 down in the opening set to carve out a 6-4, 6-2 result. Schuetter booked his spot over Czech Jiri Novak 7-5, 6-0 and will have a chance for revenge after losing to the American in straight sets in Melbourne eight months ago.
Agassi won the first four of five tournaments played to start the year. He stands 38-06 on the season with 24 victories on hard courts. Bureau Report