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| September 12, 2006 | Tuesday | Sha'aban 18, 1427 |
Seeds move ahead
BEIJING, Sept 11: Slovakian Dominik Hrbaty brushed off a first-round US Open exit by making light work of his opening match at the China Open on Monday with a 6-1, 6-0 victory over South African Rik De Voest.
The fifth seed was joined in the second round of the $500,000 tournament by Asia's top player Paradorn Srichaphan, who downed Germany's Rainer Schuettler 6-3, 6-3 on a warm evening at the Beijing Tennis Centre.
Now in his 10th year on the ATP circuit, Hrbaty looked every inch the seasoned professional as he imposed his game on De Voest, who has spent most of his year battling it out on the Challenger circuit.
Hrabty is competing in a field weakened by the withdrawals through injury and illness of Spain's world No 2 Rafael Nadal and Argentina's David Nalbandian, ranked fourth.
Thai Paradorn raced through the first set against an error-prone Schuettler and secured his place in the last 16 with an ace after an hour and six minutes.
Results:
First round: 6-Paradorn Srichaphan (Thailand) beat Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 6-3, 6-3; Kevin Kim (US) beat Kristian Pless (Denmark) 6-2, 6-4; Danai Udomchoke (Thailand) beat Marco Chiudinelli (Switzerland) 0-6, 6-2, 6-3 Stefano Galvani (Italy) beat Yen-Hsun Lu (Taiwan) 6-3, 7-6 (7-4); 5-Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia) beat Rik De Voest (South Africa) 6-1, 6-0; 8-Hyung-Taik Lee (South Korea) beat Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) 6-3, 6-4; Yeu-Tzuoo Wang (Taiwan) beat Xin-Yuan Yu (China) 6-1, 6-4.—Reuters
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