Posts Tagged ‘Junqueira’

Gaudio’s victory in the initial round at Barcelona

Previous French Open champion Gaston Gaudio achieved his initial and first match in almost two years on Tuesday, downing Argentine countryman Diego Junqueira 6-4 3-6 6-4 at the Barcelona Open.

Gaudio, the Barcelona winner seven years ago, transformed six of his seven break chances and rallied from a break down in the final set for his earliest triumph at ATP level since the 2007 French Open, a span of 23 months.

Gaudio said, “It’s always pleasant to gain after being out for so long, but I’m scarcely at a level where I can be contented”.

Fourth seeded David Ferrer waited a stubborn face from Kazakhstan qualifier Mikhail Kukushkin to win 6-s3 3-6 6-1. After winning the opening set, the 12th ranked Spaniard cracked for a 3-1 lead in the second frame before Kukushkin used his dominant ground strokes to score consecutive breaks and take it to a third set.

But Ferrer made steady himself and set the Kazakh on the run in the fourth game and impelled a return into the net for a break point and a 3-1 lead that would push him to conquest. Igor Andreev also recently linked up Ferrer in the third round when he downed Spanish wild card Alberto Martin 6-2 6-2.

In other primary round matches, seeded players Radek Stepanek, Robin Soderling, Richard Gasquet and Feliciano Lopez all won. The merely seed to exit was No.11 Marat Safin, the 2000 champion missing to Juan Monaco of Argentina 6-4 6-1.

Third seeded Nikolay Davydenko will fight in opposition to Arnaud Clement on Wednesday after the Frenchman ousted Guillermo Canas 7-6 (7-0) 6-3.

Top ranked Rafael Nadal starts his trail for a fifth straight Godo trophy against Portuguese qualifier Frederico Gil on Wednesday.

Hewitt race to initial round Houston win

Lleyton Hewitt started and opened up his 2009 claycourt movement in style with an attack beginning round win at Houston Open. Hewitt required immediately 65 minutes to release Argentine seventh seed Diego Junqueira 6-0 6-2.

Hewitt prescribed, “I didn’t know what to wait for. It’s my primary clay court tournament since last year. He further said, “I wasn’t raised on clay so it’s a matter of making your footwork downward and getting the anxiety out of the way.”

Though Hewitt has achieved and won just one title on clay, at Delray Beach in Florida a decade ago, he has a sound career record of 80-37 on the surface.

He said, “I must be doing something right.

Now on the other hand Australian top one ahead faces another Argentine, Sergio Roitman, for a berth in the quarter finals.

Top two seeds of the tournament, Americans James Blake and Mardy Fish, were both did away with on Tuesday. Blake lost 6-4 6-4 to Argentine Guillermo Canas, while Fish succumbed 6-3 5-7 6-3 to German Bjorn Phau.

Canas, who has drooping to 113th in the world, used his claycourt experience to end a sorry run of six directly first round overcomes this year.

Canas said, “It’s tough to increase self-assurance when you misplace in the first round, this year has been a tough start. I haven’t played and performed very well for the past two months. Now for me, I expect to carry on on with the tournament.”

Blake neglected to 39-41 in career claycourt matches.

He said, “At times, I hit myself out there. I completed a lot of faults. He type of violence you into that the way he plays defence. It’s no reason for some faults, particularly the ones I built at key times. If you wait for to win matches, you have to put that around big points.”

The 28th ranked, Fish was the crowd preferred at the beginning of the match but by the third set, Phau’s resolute to play opening drawing dotted applause. In the third game of the decisive set Phau cracked Fish game and ruled out the triumph with one more smash in the eighth game.

Phau described, “At the starting, I didn’t suffer as well but I began to feel improved by the third set, I struggled to obtain into a rhythm and I think I got it.”

In additional matches, veteran Tommy Haas punch fellow Germany Denis Gremelmayr 6-3 6-3.