The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Roddick back in business

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Oct 27, 2005

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Sport - Tennis

Roddick back in business

LYON: Top seed Andy Roddick, who had not won a Tour match since the middle of August, advanced to the second round with a 7-5, 6-3 victory over French wildcard Thierry Ascione in the Lyon Grand Prix on Tuesday.

At Basel, third-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain cruised through the opening round of the Swiss Indoors, defeating Italy's Filippo Volandri 6-2, 6-4.

The 2003 French Open champion, making his third appearance in Basel, is looking to win his first title of the season after reaching the finals at Barcelona and Vienna. Last week, Ferrero lost in the first round of the Madrid Masters to Max Mirnyi of Belarus.

``I felt pretty good on court. I'm playing good indoors for the moment,'' said Ferrero, who has recovered from 98th in the ATP rankings in February to 19th this week. `

`The first set went almost too quickly and the second set was not so easy to finish,'' he added.

Bad run continues

The third-seeded pair of Mahesh Bhupathi and Martin Damm suffered a shock defeat in the first round of the St. Petersburg Open, losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-7(7) to unseeded duo of Jurgen Melzer and Julian Knowle of Austria.

The pair had lost to Leander Paes and Serbian Nenad Zimonjic in the second round of the Madrid Masters last week.

The Indo-Czech pair got off to flying start and dropped only three games to race away with the first set 6-3.

Bhupathi and Damm allowed the Austrians to level the match by taking the second set with a reverse score-line.

Ivanovic prevails

At Linz, eighth seed Ana Ivanovic reached the second round of the Generali Ladies Open with a 7-6(4), 6-2 victory over Japan's Shinobu Asagoe.

The two exchanged breaks in the first set, but Ivanovic wasted two set points at 6-5 before finally prevailing in the tiebreak.

The results: At Lyon (Lyon Open, first round): Tommy Robredo bt Nicolas Lapentti 2-6, 7-5, 6-4; Davide Sanguinetti bt Feliciano Lopez 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-4; Andy Roddick bt Thierry Ascione 7-5, 6-3; Michael Llodra bt Xavier Malisse 7-6(6), 6-3.

Olivier Rochus bt Mariano Puerta 4-6, 7-5, 6-3; Thomas Enqvist bt Gregory Carraz 6-1, 6-4; Marc Gicquel bt David Ferrer 6-4, 6-0; Sebastien Grosjean bt Victor Hanescu 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Gael Monfils bt Jan Hernych 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

At St. Petersburg (St. Petersburg Open, first round): Fernando Verdasco bt Mark Philippoussis 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-2; Sergei Stakhovski bt Alexander Popp 6-3, 4-6, 6-4; Thomas Johansson bt Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4; Juan Monaco bt Teimuraz Gabashvili 6-3, 6-3.

Doubles: Jurgen Melzer-Julian Knowle bt Mahesh Bhupathi-Martin Damm 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(7).

Nicolas Kiefer bt Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 6-3, 3-6, 6-4; Kevin Kim bt Ivo Minar 6-1, 4-6, 7-5; Thomas Johansson bt Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-4; Mikhail Youzhny bt Karol Beck 6-3, 4-1 (retd).

At Basel (Swiss Indoors, first round): Juan Carlos Ferrero bt Filippo Volandri 6-2, 6-4; Florian Mayer bt Wesley Moodie 7-6(1), 1-6, 6-3; Kristof Vliegen bt Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6(4), 4-6, 6-3; Tommy Haas bt Alexander Waske 7-6(5), 6-4; Marcos Baghdatis bt Alan Mackin 6-1, 6-3.

At Linz (Generali Ladies Open, first round): Ana Ivanovic bt Shinobu Asagoe 7-6(4), 6-2; Kveta Peschke bt Vera Zvonareva 7-5, 7-5.

Gisela Dulko bt Lisa Raymond 6-7(2), 7-6(6), 6-2; Iveta Benesova bt Marta Domachowska 6-3, 6-3; Sybille Bammer bt Virginie Razzano 7-6(3), 6-3.

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