Tennis Update: Auckland's Heineken Open Round One involving a few upsets
In the news of the Auckland’s Heineken Open, the American qualifier Michael Russell was beaten in the first round by the seventh seed Thomaz Bellucci. It was an entertaining end to the opening match on centre court today.
Bellucci now reaches the second round of the tournament after a three set battle after finally winning 4-6 7-6 and 7-5. the Brazilian locked up the match just 10 minutes short of the three hour mark going into the second round to face the world number 50,
Spaniard Tommy Robredo.
Tommy eliminated the New Zealand number one Michael Venus in three sets earlier on the opening day and shall now be facing the seventh seed Brazilian. He was looking forward to play against Russell instead of the world number 31, saying that the lefties
are harder to handle.
Elsewhere the 22-year-old French qualifier, Adrian Mannarino made an upset sending the fifth seed Argentine Juan Monaco out. The fast-improving Frenchman was over the edge in the first-round clash against the highly ranked Monaco taking him in straight sets
6-4 and 6-3.
Mannarino was deeply pleased by his win and called it a shock indeed as this was the biggest of his young career so far. He had been in good shape throughout the qualifiers and he gave the credit of his surprising win to the three matches in the qualifying,
that they helped a lot in building his moral.
After the game, Mannarino appreciated Monaco’s game and said that he knows Monaco can play a much better game but it was just a good day to play him as it’s just his first or second tournament of the year.
After this upset, Mannarino is all set for the second round and shall be facing either the fellow Frenchman Arnaud Clement or the Belgian Xavier Malissem, the winner from the night match between these two.
In the other night’s game, the Netherlands star Robin Haase face Uruguay’s Pablo Cuevas.
In other games, Romania’s Victor Hanescu won a match against the South African Kevin Anderson 7-6 (7) 6-7 (3) 6-4m, as he went in the next round facing Nicolas Almagro. Also Argentine sixth seed David Nalbandian won through 7-6 6-4 over the Italian foe Fabio
Fognini.
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