The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Santoro shocks Djokovic; Murray advances

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Santoro shocks Djokovic; Murray advances

Davenport puts out Angelique Kerber in the WTA Bell Challenge

— PHOTO: AFP

BOLD AND VIBRANT: Fabrice Santoro upset Novak Djokovic in the Paris Masters on Wednesday.

PARIS: Andy Murray turned around a tiebreak to keep his dream of the Masters Cup alive with a 7-6(5), 6-3 victory over Jarkko Nieminen on Wednesday to enter the third round of the Paris Indoor Masters tennis tournament.

Fabrice Santoro of France earned the first upset of the final week of the ATP season, rolling over listless third-seeded Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-2.

The Serb booked his place at the year-end wrap-up weeks ago, joining Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Nikolay Davydenko, Andy Roddick and David Ferrer.

The British No. 1 kept pace with his rivals for the year-end championship, which begins in Shanghai on November 11, as he recovered from 3-5 down in a first-set decider.

Murray will face a test on Thursday against Santoro.

Murray is lying amidst a group of rivals including Spain’s Tommy Robredo, Czech Tomas Berdych, and American James Blake.

German Tommy Haas stands on provisional eighth place while number seven Fernando Gonzalez missed a chance to clinch a spot after losing in the second round on Tuesday to Mikhail Youzhny.

But the 20-year-old Scot said he’s not keen on possibly travelling to China as an alternate if he doesn’t qualify into the eight-man field.

Murray forced Nieminen, last week’s Basle finalist against Federer, to save seven break points in the first set.

But the Finn earned a 5-3 lead in the tiebreaker only to lose it. In the second, he broke for 3-1 but immediately lost the edge as Murray swept the last four games.

On Tuesday, Tommy Robredo and Tommy Haas were taken to three sets before winning their second round matches and keeping alive their hopes of qualifying for the Masters Cup.

Spain’s Robredo saved four break points in the third set before beating France’s Gilles Simon 6-4, 2-6, 6-4, and Germany’s Haas beat Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3.

‘Great match’

“It was a great match,” Robredo said. “Simon is a very good player. He played much better than me in the second set.”

Robredo made his Masters Cup debut last year. Haas is trying to get there for the first time.

Haas, who pulled out of the Lyon Grand Prix last week with a stomach problem, was troubled by his right shoulder and was feeling tired. He said his main priority was to get some rest after a long season.

Haas was up a set and a break on his Serbian opponent but Tipsarevic broke back to force a tiebreaker which he won 7-5. Haas broke in the eighth game of the third set and served out.

He next faces Mikhail Youzhny of Russia, who ousted Gonzalez 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

“I really like this tournament but I’ve never won a match here,” Gonzalez said. “That’s the sixth year in a row.”

Berdych easily beat Mario Ancic of Croatia 6-3, 6-3 to set up a third-round match with Ferrer. The Spaniard beat Mardy Fish of the United States 6-1, 7-6(4).

Guillermo Canas of Argentina beat Andreas Seppi of Italy 6-3, 7-6(5) to keep his slim chances alive of qualifying. He meets Robredo in the third round.

Easy for Davenport

At Quebec City (Canada), American Lindsay Davenport made the most of her wild card invitation with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over seventh-seeded Angelique Kerber in the WTA Bell Challenge on Tuesday.

The results:

At Paris: Paris Masters: Second round: Andy Murray bt Jarkko Nieminen 7-6(5), 6-3; Stanislas Wawrinka bt Juan Ignacio Chela 6-3, 6-1; Tomas Berdych bt Mario Ancic 6-3, 6-3; Fabrice Santoro bt Novak Djokovic 6-3, 6-2; Nikolay Davydenko bt Juan Del Potro 7-6(3), 6-1; Tommy Robredo bt Gilles Simon 6-4, 2-6, 6-4; David Ferrer bt Mardy Fish 6-1, 7-6(4); Mikhail Youzhny bt Fernando Gonzalez 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; Guillermo Canas bt Andreas Seppi 6-3, 7-6(5); Tommy Haas bt Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-7(5), 6-3. First round: Ivo Karlovic bt Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) bt Sebastien Grosjean 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Fabrice Santoro bt Albert Montanes 7-6(4), 6-2; Filippo Volandri bt Juergen Melzer 6-0, 6-3.

At Quebec City: WTA Bell Challenge: First round: Olga Poutchkova bt Marina Erakovic 6-1, 6-2; Vania King bt Anne Kremer 6-2, 6-1; Stephanie Foretz bt Yaroslava Shvedova 6-3, 6-4; Severine Bremond bt Marie-Eve Pelletier 6-2, 6-3; Jill Craybas bt Lilia Osterloh 6-4, 2-6, 6-2; Alina Jidkova bt Sunitha Rao 6-4, 5-7, 6-4; Lindsay Davenport bt Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-3; Stephanie Dubois bt Abigail Spears 6-1, 6-4. — Agencies

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