Estoril Open 2003 News and Events

Yevgeny Kafelnikov
© João Lagos Sports

Sixth seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov set up an all-Russian quarterfinal clash with Davis Cup teammate Nikolay Davydenko after recording an impressive 6-3, 6-0 victory over Romania's Adrian Voinea at the Estoril Open on Thursday.

Kafelnikov, who had never won a match in five previous attempts in Estoril before this year, has lost just four games in his opening two matches having comprehensively overcome Irakli Labadze 6-1, 6-0 in the first round.

"It's a combination of surprise and knowing that I've had a good eight or nine days preparation on the clay," said Kafelnikov. "It's starting to show now. Throughout my career, I have not played my best tennis from the first week on clay, and it's been very unfortunate that Estoril is in the first week. This year, I have already spent eight or nine days on the clay courts and that's given me more time to understand it."

Impressive

After his impressive display on Wednesday, Kafelnikov needed an extra five minutes on court to defeat Voinea, going through to his third quarterfinal of the year in 52 minutes, narrowly avoiding the rain at the Estadio Nacional.

Earlier in the day, Davydenko came back from 4-1 down in the second set to defeat Germany's Alexander Waske. The 21-year-old narrowly lost against Kafelnikov in their only previous meeting last year in Doha, but looked in good shape on the clay en route to a 6-3, 7-6(3) victory.

Looking forward to his match against Kafelnikov, Davydenko said: "He's fit and he's playing well here. We'll see how I play against him tomorrow. The courts aren't so slow here, they are playing quite fast, so I don't know what will happen. He's playing better now than he was before the Davis Cup [in Argentina]."

Kafelnikov added: "He obviously wants to do well here. He's going to go out there and wants to beat me tomorrow. I've seen him a little bit here today but I know his game well enough. There will be no big surprises for me to play him."