Juan Carlos Ferrero, Nikolay Davydenko move to the round of 16 - Open de Nice Côte d’Azur
Juan Carlos Ferrero beats Robin Haase 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(6)
Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero, formerly ranked first in the world, bounced back from the jaws of defeat to edge past Robin Haase of the Netherlands 4-6, 7-6(6), 7-6(6) in the first round at the Open de Nice Côte d’Azur in France
on Tuesday.
Ferrero and Haase won their serve in the first four games of the opener to take the score to 2-2. Haase struck in the fifth and capitalised on the only break of serve to win 6-4.
In the second set, the Spaniard and Dutch made a more stable start, as they did not allow each other to break in the first eight games and levelled the score at 4-4. Haase hit a blow to the former world number one in the ninth
to attain a 5-4 lead, getting into a winning position. However, when Haase served for the match at that moment, he could not finish it off and squared off the proceedings at 5-5. The set was taken into a tie-breaker, where Ferrero hit a late blow to seal it
7-6(6).
Ferrero drew the first blood in the decider but Haase came back to equalise it at 3-3. The subsequent six games went with the serve to level the score at 6-6, enforcing a tie-breaker into play. The Spaniard gained a 3-0 lead but
Haas bounced back to even it out at 4-4. Ferrero, just like the previous set, grabbed last two points to capture it 7-6(6).
The Spaniard required two hours and 32 minutes to register win over his Dutch opponent.
Ferrero is slated to play Thomaz Bellucci of Brazil for a place in the last eight.
Nikolay Davydenko defeats Matthew Ebden 6-3, 6-3
Joining Ferrero at the next stage, former world number three, Nikolay Davydenko of Russia, defeated Australia’s Matthew Ebden in twin sets 6-3, 6-3 in the opener.
Davydenko and Ebden started by swapping a break of serve in the opening two games of the first set to equalise the score at 1-1. They went neck to neck till 3-3 but then the Russian snatched three in a row to clinch it 6-3.
Both players broke each other on a number of occasions in the second set. Davydenko, however, claimed three of the five of them and capitalised on the opportunity to triumph 6-3.
The Russian will play seventh seed, Denis Istomin, in the second round. The Uzbek, Istomin, ousted Alejandro Falla in three sets 7-6(3), 1-6, 6-1 in the opener.
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