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| April 24, 2003 | Thursday | Safar 21, 1424 |
Kuerten, Moya sail into third round
BARCELONA, April 23: Gustavo Kuerten recovered from a stuttering start to move through to the third round of the Barcelona Open with a 7-6 6-3 victory over Spain’s Felix Mantilla on Wednesday.
The Brazilian number seven seed was caught cold by Mantilla, a former champion at Barcelona, who raced into a 5-1 lead with some precise hitting from the back of the court.
Kuerten gradually found his rhythm on the red clay, though, and recovered to break back twice and force a tie-break that he took 7-1.
The second set was more straightforward for the three-times French Open champion, who took a 5-2 lead and clinched his third match point in game nine with a forehand approach and neat put-away.
Kuerten was followed into the third round by Carlos Moya, another former winner at Roland Garros.
Moya, the second seed, came through a tight first set against the Romanian Adrian Voinea 7-3 on the tie-break before completing a 7-6 6-3 success in one hour 18 minutes.
Argentine sixth seed David Nalbandian also fell on day three of the one million euro ($1.10 million) tournament, going down 6-3 7-6 to Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko.
Second-round results: Nikolay Davydenko bt David Nalbandian 6-3 7-6 (7-4), Carlos Moya bt Adrian Voinea 7-6 (7-3) 6-3, Dominik Hrbaty bt Guillermo Coria 4-3 retired, Gustavo Kuerten bt Felix Mantilla 7-6 (7-1) 6-3, Jose Acasuso bt Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-2 6-2
Agassi in a hurry:
HOUSTON,(Texas): Top seed Andre Agassi took only 47 minutes to dispose of Croatia’s Zeljko Krajan 6-2 6-0 in the first round of the $380,000 U.S. Clay Court Championship on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old American’s victory took his record this year to an ATP-best 19-1 and he was delighted with his performance.
Agassi controlled the match from the start, breaking serve in the first game, and only lost eight points on his delivery throughout.
The Australian Open champion had never played Krajan before.
Fifth seed Vincent Spadea also breezed through on Tuesday, defeating fellow American Jack Brasington 6-3 6-3.
Spadea was joined in the second round by compatriots Mardy Fish and Paul Goldstein and Brazilian trio Fernando Meligeni, Flavio Saretta and Ricardo Mello.
First round results:
Andre Agassi (USA x1) bt Zeljko Krajan (CRO) 6-2, 6-0
Vince Spadea (USA x5) bt Jack Brasington (USA) 6-3, 6-3
Luis Horna (PER) bt Jan-Michael Gambill (USA x6) 6-2, 6-4
Todd Martin (USA) bt Hyung-Taik Lee (KOR x8) 6-3, 6-4
Mardy Fish (USA) bt Sergio Roitman (ARG) 6-3, 6-3
Ricardo Mello (BRA) bt Andre Sa (BRA) 7-6 (7/2), 6-0
Flavio Saretta (BRA) bt Cecil Mamitt (USA) 6-3, 6-1
Paul Goldstein (USA) bt Tomas Enqvist (SWE) 6-1, 7-6 (9/7)
Fernando Meligeni (BRA) bt Justin Gimelstob (USA) 6-2, 6-4 —Reuters/AFP
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