Malaysian Open tennis tournament: highlights from Tuesday
Barclays ATP World Tour title battle hopefuls Michal Mertinak and Frantisek Cermak, who are currently ranked number twelve in the world, progressed into the quarter final round of the Malaysian Open tennis tournament on Tuesday.
The second seed duo of Mertinak and Cermak improved their match record to 24-20 this year, when they overpowered Michal Przysiezny and Tomasz Bednarek in a two-setter clash in Kuala Lumpur. The final match score was 6-3, 6-2. The match concluded in a time
period of fifty nine minutes on Tuesday. This season, the pair has ended as finalists at two ATP World Tour competitions, including the ATP Studena Croatia Open and Qatar ExxonMobil Open in Umag and Doha respectively.
Ross Hutchins and Stephen Huss also won seventy two percent of their service points to surpass their Colombian opponents, Santiago Giraldo and Alejandro Falla in a three-setter clash on Tuesday. The final match score was 5-7, 6-1, 10-8. The match lasted
for seventy nine minutes in Kuala Lumpur. Hutchins and Stephen share a record of 1-2 in ATP World Tour finals, and captured their only trophy in September at the China Open back in 2008.
Mikhail Youzhny and Sergiy Stakhovsky who won the Gerry Weber Open crown after defeating Polasek/Damm back in June, improved to a year record of 10-4 after preventing all four break points the duo faced to overpower Travis Parrott and Jordan Kerr in two
sets. The final match score was 6-4, 7-5.
Meanwhile, Denis Istomin and Andrey Golubev who are contesting in their seventh ATP World Tour championship of the season, thrashed Michael Russell and Kevin Anderson 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 in one hour and thirty three minutes on Tuesday. They will next meet the
fourth seeds Jean-Julien Rojer and Eric Butorac who got the better of their Russian- Malaysian pair of Nikolay Davydenko and Nazim Khan Mahmood Khan in two sets. The final match score was 6-3, 6-3.
In the singles action on Tuesday, the sixth seed Marcos Baghdatis from Cyprus dispatched off his Japanese tennis foe, Kei Nishikori with a two-setter win in just fifty four minutes in Kuala Lumpur. The final match score was 6-1, 6-1.
Marcos, who has made his way into a total of eight ATP World Tour quarters this season, blasted eight aces and successfully managed to convert five of his six break point chances for his thirty eighth victory. The world number eighteen captured his fourth
crown at the Medibank International Sydney tennis competition after defeating Gasquet earlier this season in January. Kei has so far lifted three ATP Challenger Tour trophies this year.
“It was a great match. I played really good tennis. I am happy with the way I played and I’m happy I won. Nishikori is a very talented player; he had a good run at the United States Open, he has beaten some good players this year. But I played really well
and did not give him any chances and I am very happy about that,” said Marcos after his win on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, Alexandr Dolgopolov, who began the season ranked number 131 in the world and improved his rankings to number 39 back in July, overpowered a French qualifier Laurent Recouderc in just fifty minutes on Tuesday. The final match score was 6-3, 6-1.
Alexandr improved to a match record of 15-17 his year, featured by an appearance to his first ATP World Tour semi-final at the AEGON International tennis tournament in Eastbourne.
Milos Raonic, a qualifier also won his second first round match after beating Igor Kunitsyn from Russia for a 7-6(6), 6-3 win in eight six minutes on Tuesday.
“It feels very good. I played my best tennis in a while today. I’ve been having a good summer, so it’s good to continue here into the indoor swing, where I feel I play well. It’s a little weight off my shoulders, getting my first ATP win. I served really
well, that helped me a lot and took a lot of pressure off me,” said Milos, who registered his first ATP World Tour-level victory at the Malaysian Open on Tuesday.
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