Carlos Moya, Novak Djokovic Advance at French Open Tennis Tournament

Jun 04, 11:05 AM

Current Headlines: PARIS (AP) - Carlos Moya overcame his relative inexperience to beat Jonas Bjorkman at the French Open.

A Roland Garros perennial, Moya was nonetheless the younger player Monday, and he advanced to the quarter-finals by beating the 35-year-old Swede 7-6 (5), 6-2, 7-5. Wearing a sleeveless shirt and his cap backward, the 30-year-old Spaniard hardly looked like an old-timer. But he became the oldest man to reach the final eight at the French Open since Andre Agassi in 2003.

Moya won the title in 1998 and is playing in the tournament for the 12th year in a row.

Also advancing was 20-year-old Novak Djokovic of Serbia, who beat unseeed Spaniard Fernando Verdasco 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (1) to reach the quarter-finals for the second consecutive year.

Bjorkman, the oldest man in the 128-player draw, overcame deficits of two sets to none in the first two rounds. But this time he was the one squandering leads.

The unseeded Swede was ahead 5-2 in the opening set but lost the next four games. He broke serve for 6-all and led 5-3 in the tiebreaker before Moya swept the final four points, the last with a net cord winner.

Bjorkman began to show signs of wear after losing the second set, when he needed a shoulder massage from a trainer. He lost serve in the final game, pushing a tired backhand into the net on match point.

The No. 23-seeded Moya, long known for his Popeye-size right biceps, hit 21 forehand winners to three for Bjorkman, and the disparity helped the Spaniard save 11 of the 14 break points he faced. Bjorkman came forward frequently, but Moya often responded with pinpoint passing shots.

Like Moya, the No. 6-seeded Djokovic benefited from a lucky bounce on an important point. It came in the tiebreaker, when his backhand kissed the net cord before dropping for a winner.

Djokovic crossed himself in gratitude. Verdasco retrieved the ball and put it in his courtside bag, prompting laughter from the crowd.

Verdasco shanked a forehand on match point, a fitting finish. The big-swinging Spaniard committed 50 unforced errors.

He fell chasing a shot in the third game, scraped his left knee and repeatedly flexed his racket hand between points in the next game, when he was broken to fall behind 3-1.

By the middle of the second set, when Djokovic raced to a 4-0 lead, a frustrated Verdasco was talking to himself.

"I was stepping in more, and I was being aggressive," Djokovic said. "I think I played really well."

Djokovic, two points from defeat in a five-set win Saturday over Olivier Patience, will next play the winner of the match between No. 16 Marcos Baghdatis and unseeded Igor Andreev. Moya will play the winner of the match between two-time defending champion Rafael Nadal, seeded second, and No. 14 Lleyton Hewitt.