KEY BISCAYNE, Florida, 30 March 2004 — Spanish schoolboy Rafael Nadal stunned world No. 1 Roger Federer 6-3, 6-3 here Sunday to oust the Wimbledon and Australian Open champion at the WTA and ATP Masters Series event.
Nadal, the youngest man in the field at 17, needed only 69 minutes to topple the Swiss top seed from the $6.5 million hardcourt event, snapping Federer’s 12-match win streak with the third-round triumph.
“He played very aggressive. I couldn’t play the way I wanted,” Federer said. “That’s the struggle I had. I couldn’t get out of it.”
Federer had won 28 of his prior 29 matches and was off to a career-best 23-1 start in 2004, his only loss this year coming to Britain’s Tim Henman in last month’s Rotterdam quarterfinals.
“I’m very happy because I played one of the best matches of my life,” Nadal said. “I played almost perfect tennis. He didn’t play his best tennis. That’s why I could win.
“I was pressing him. I knew the most important point was I couldn’t let him play his own game. From the first point I had to dictate the exchange.”
Federer won his second Grand Slam crown at the Australian Open and added titles at Dubai and Indian Wells earlier this month. He will retain his spot atop the ATP rankings despite the defeat.
Australian Lleyton Hewitt and American Jennifer Capriati joined Federer on the scrap heap while two-time defending champion Serena Williams, back from an eight-month layoff, struggled past Russian Elena Likhovtseva 6-1, 4-6, 6-3.
Romania’s Andrei Pavel dispatched 18th-ranked Hewitt 6-4, 7-5. Hewitt double faulted 10 times, the last on match point, and connected on only 56 percent of first serves with 31 unforced errors, 16 more than Pavel. Fourth seed Capriati lost to Greece’s 21-year-old Eleni Daniilidou 6-2, 6-4, to remove the last top-10 foe from Serena Williams’ half of the draw, enhancing the chances for an all-Williams final.
“I don’t think I was just there,” Capriati said. “It felt like I was just off and it felt like she couldn’t miss. I just didn’t play my game really, just got sucked into her type of game.”
Top seed Serena Williams, in her first event since beating sister Venus in last July’s Wimbledon final and left knee surgery last August, advanced to a round of 16 meeting with 16-year-old Russian prodigy Maria Sharapova. “Obviously I’m not in my best form,” Williams said. “I didn’t play very well. I just couldn’t get a ball in. I just kept flying it. I’m glad I had that situation. I haven’t had that kind of match for a while.”
Serena was far from her peak, spraying shots against the 42nd-ranked Russian in an bid to find the magic that has brought her six Slam titles.
Three-time champion Venus Williams, seeded second but ranked 17th after a six-month layoff, beat Slovakia’s 36th-rated Daniela Hantuchova 7-6 (7-0), 6-2.
