The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Blake beats Odesnik

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Apr 14, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Blake beats Odesnik

HOUSTON, APRIL 13. Fourth-seeded James Blake beat wild-card entry Wayne Odesnik 6-4, 6-2 on Monday in the first round of the U.S. men's clay court championships.

Blake, a quarterfinalist the past two years, hit a high-bouncing second serve over Odesnik's head to take the advantage in the fifth game of the second set and then hit an overhead winner to hold serve and take a 3-2 lead. Blake then broke Odesnik in the sixth and eighth games to end the match.

Third-seeded Taylor Dent took a big early lead and then fell apart, losing to Argentina's Franco Squillari 0-6, 7-5, 7-6(5).

Dent, ranked 35th in the world, was ahead 4-1 in the second set when the 130th-ranked Squillari rallied. Squillari never trailed in the tie-breaker.

Dent lost in the first round of the clay court tournament for the third straight year.

The results:

At Houston: (Men's clay court championships): Franco Squillari bt Taylor Dent 0-6, 7-5, 7-6(5); James Blake bt Wayne Odesnik, 6-4, 6-2; Luis Horna bt Brian Vahaly 6-3, 6-1; Tomas Behrend bt Alexander Popp 6-1, 6-3; Todd Martin bt Martin Vassallo Arguello 6-1, 6-2.

At Valencia: (Valencia Open): Fernando Verdasco bt Albert Portas 6-1, 6-4; Jan Vacek bt Guillermo Burniol 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Ivan Ljubicic bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 6-4; Alex Corretja bt David Sanchez 5-7, 6-2, 6-2

At Charleston: (Family Circle Cup): Karolina Sprem bt Nathalie Dechy 6-4, 6-4; Anabel Medina Garrigues bt Cara Black 6-4, 6-0; Severine Beltrame bt Jie Zheng 2-6, 6-4, 7-5; Marie-Gayanay Mikaelian bt Fabiola Zuluaga 6-2, 6-2; Conchita Martinez bt Tian Tian Sun 6-1, 6-0; Dally Randriantefy bt Lisa Raymond 7-5, 2-6, 6-2; Samantha Reeves bt Laura Granville 6-1, 2-6, 6-3 ; Virginia Ruano Pascual bt Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-2, 6-3; Kelly McCain bt Arantxa Parra 2-6, 7-5, 6-1; Teryn Ashley bt Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-4, 4-6, 6-4; Patty Schnyder bt Marlene Weingartner 7-5, 7-6(2); Jelena Kostanic bt Tatiana Perebiynis 4-6, 7-6(5), 6-0.

At Oeiras (Estoril Open): Men: Radek Stepanek bt Nikolay Davydenko 7-6(4), 6-3; Olivier Patience bt Julien Boutter 3-6, 6-2, 6-4; Thierry Ascione bt Antony Dupuis 7-6(5), 6-0.

Women: Stephanie Cohen-Aloro bt Sandra Kleinova 6-2, 6-7(4), 6-0; Martina Sucha bt Zuzana Ondraskova 6-1, 6-2; Flavia Pennetta bt Asa Svensson 6-1, 6-3; Klara Koukalova bt Tathiana Garbin 5-7, 6-2, 6-3. — AP

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