Third seed Robby Ginepri was the highest-ranked casualty in the first round of the US men’s claycourt championships in Houston on Monday, when the American lost 6-4 6-4 to Spain’s Albert Montanes.
NEW YORK: Third seed Robby Ginepri was the highest-ranked casualty in the first round of the US men’s claycourt championships in Houston on Monday, when the American lost 6-4 6-4 to Spain’s Albert Montanes.
Hampered by erratic play for a majority of the match, Ginepri’s defeat was the latest setback in a poor start to a season that has garnered just two wins in 10 matches. After dropping serve early in the second set, the American did manage to break Montanes in the sixth game but the Spaniard broke Ginepri again in the seventh game and maintained the advantage to close out the match.
In the day’s other match involving a seeded player, fifth-ranked Tommy Haas of Germany eased into the second round with a 6-1 6-4 victory over Spain’s Oscar Hernandez. The former champion dominated the first set and fought off a determined Hernandez in the second as he looks to pick up a second Houston title after his victory two years ago.
It was the first career meeting between the two players, with Haas improving his match record to 21-5 this season with the win. The in-form German has already picked up titles at Delray Beach and Memphis this season.
In other matches, Olivier Marach of Austria defeated Juan Antonio Marin of Costa Rica 6-4 6-1 and Jurgen Melzer of Austria downed Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic 7-6 6-0. Top seed Andy Roddick of the US plays his first match of the $380,000 tournament against Paul Capdeville of Chile on Tuesday.
Andy Roddick, who won two singles matches to help the United States reach the Davis Cup semi-finals, returns to defend his crown this week.
A three-time champion here, Roddick is the top seed at the 380,000-dollar event and will face Chilean Paul Capdeville in the first round.
On Sunday, Roddick earned the clinching point over Chile with a four-set victory over Fernando Gonzalez on a grass court in Rancho Mirage, California. Capdeville and Adrian Garcia won a total of seven games in three sets in falling to Americans Bob and Mike Bryan in the doubles on Saturday.
Safarova moves up
Fourteenth seeded Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic advanced to the second round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston on Monday, beating Australia’s Samantha Stosur 5-7 6-1 6-4.
In other first round matches in the clay court tournament, Puerto Rico’s Kristina Brandi beat 13th seeded Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden 7-5 6-3 and 16th seeded Mara Santangelo of Italy defeated France’s Stephanie Foretz 6-2 6-4. Sybille Bammer of Austria beat Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-4 6-1 and will play top seeded Justine Henin Hardenne in the second round.
Also, Neha Uberoi served 11 aces and 12 double faults in beating fellow American Lisa Raymond 6-3 3-6 6-1, Bogota champion Lourdes Dominguez Lino defeated Ukraine’s Viktoriya Kutuzova 6-3 7-5 and Ukrainian qualifier Alona Bondarenko defeated Russian Ekaterina Bychkova 6-1 7-5 to line up a match with second seeded Nadia Petrova, who won the Amelia Island title on Sunday.
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