Open Sud de France and Bank Tennis Trophy; Highlights from Monday
The seventh seed Richard Gasquet from France battled hard for his opening round victory over Julian Reister of Germany at the Open Sud de France on Monday. The French man in the end did well to beat Julian in three sets in Montpellier. The final match score
was 6-7(8), 6-3, 6-3.
After narrowly losing the first set, Richard broke the world number 116 Julian on four occasions to record his 35th clash victory of the year. He closed out the match in a time period of two hours and five minutes.
Gasquet enjoys a good success record on home soil in 2010, capturing the clay court crown in Nice and also making his way into the semi-final round at the Open de Moselle in Metz back in September.
Meanwhile, the sixth seed Albert Montanes from Spain also reached the second round in France with a two-setter victory over Arnaud Clement on Monday. The score line was 6-4, 6-4. Montanes did well to prevent all three break point chances he faced on his
serve. It marked his first victory over Arnaud in three attempts.
Frederico Gil, who is the number one Protégées also prevented nine of thirteen break point chances to dispatch off Edouard Roger Vasselin in three sets. The final match score was 6-4, 2-6, 7-5. The match concluded in two and a half hours on Monday.
Frederico, who had defeated Roger -Vasselin at an ATP Challenger Tour competition earlier this season in Tunis, posted his twelfth tour level victory of the year. He also ended as a finalist to Albert Montanes at the 2010 Estoril Open Men’s singles competition
back in May.
In the doubles clashes on Monday, Sanchai Ratiwantana along with his partner Sonchat Ratiwantana upset the second seed duo of Horia Tecau and Robert Lindstedt in two sets in Montpellier. The score line was 7-6(5), 7-6(4).
Robert and Horia, champions of four ATP World Tour crowns since teaming up back in March are currently ranked number nine in the ATP Doubles ranking list on the tour. They were also bundled out of the If Stockholm Open in their opening round last week.
The Ratiwatana twins on the other hand, captured their first tour level main draw clash since Wimbledon, where the duo made it into the third round as qualifiers.
At the 2010 St. Petersburg Open, the third seed pair of Igor Zelenay and Filip Polasek posted their first victory at the tour-level as they got the better of Ken Skupski and Colin Fleming in two sets. The final match score was 6-4, 6-2.
Meanwhile, Lovro and Marin Cilic of Croatia teamed up on the first occasion in 2010 and clinched a two-setter victory over Pere Riba and Michael Kohlmann at the Bank Tennis Trophy in Vienna. The final match score was 6-1, 6-1.
In the singles action, Andreas Seppi of Italy overpowered Martin Fischer, a wild card entrant from Austria in two sets on Monday. The score line was 6-3, 6-3.
World number fifty one, Seppi broke his opponent on four occasions from nine break point chances to improve his match record to 24-26 on the season.
Philipp Kohlschreiber, a seventh seed German also required only fifty five minutes to clinch a 6-0, 6-3 victory over Alejandro Falla of Colombia. Philipp lost only three service points while taking the opening set and despite of losing serve during the start
of the decisive set, he broke his Colombian foe twice to win the battle in straight sets in the end.
Jan Hajek of Czech Republic also secured his first tour-level victory since August, brushing aside Pere Riba of Spain in two sets on Monday. The final match score was 6-0, 6-2. The clash concluded in a time period of forty seven minutes.
Hajek, as a result of this victory will next take on Marin Cilic who is seeded number two to win the title at the ATP World Tour 250 tennis competition.
Tags: