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BARCELONA, April 24: Argentina’s Agustin Calleri beat a below par Albert Costa 6-4 6-2 on Thursday to reach the quarterfinals of the Barcelona Open.
Costa, the French Open champion and seeded third in the one million euro ($1.10 million) claycourt tournament, hardly put a foot right as his opponent, seeded 16th, completed victory in 86 minutes.
Marat Safin, who won the title in Barcelona in 2000, also looked a little short of his best form but he still had far too much power for Jarkko Nieminem in a 6-3 6-3 success for the Russian fourth seed.
Safin, who lost his opening service game to fall 2-0 behind, recovered quickly enough to take a 5-2 lead and in the end his victory was relatively straightforward.
He will go on to face the winner of the match between defending champion Gaston Gaudio of Argentina and Spain’s David Sanchez.
The easiest win of the day was for the seventh seed Gustavo Kuerten, who moved straight into the quarterfinals after Younes El Aynaoui was forced to retire before their scheduled match because of illness.
Third round results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Gustavo Kuerten bt Younes El Aynaoui retired, Agustin Calleri bt Albert Costa 6-4 6-2, Marat Safin bt Jarkko Nieminem 6-3 6-3
RODDICK ADVANCES
HOUSTON (Texas): Defending champion Andy Roddick fought to defeat qualifier Paul Goldstein 7-5 6-4 on Wednesday to reach the quarterfinals of the $380,000 US Clay Court Championships.
Roddick, the second seed, was down a service break in both sets before defeating Goldstein in a second round match at the Westside Tennis Club.
Roddick, winner at Houston in 2002 and 2001, will play Fernando Meligeni in the quarter-finals on Friday. The Brazilian claycourt specialist defeated Vincent Spadea, the fifth seed, 4-6 7-6 (8-6) 6-3.
Ranked 193rd in the world, Goldstein was leading 4-1 in the first set when Roddick recovered with a service break in the seventh game and levelled the contest 4-4. He broke again in the 11th game, held service and won the set.
In the second set, Goldstein was serving at 4-2 and 40-30 when he missed an open court volley, allowing Roddick back into the game. Roddick won the final four games.—Reuters
