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| May 24, 2007 | Thursday | Jamadi-ul-Awwal 07, 1428 |
Davydenko, Hewitt breeze into second round
POERTSCHACH (Austria), May 23: Russian top seed Nikolay Davydenko and Australian Lleyton Hewitt had comfortable first-round wins at the ATP tournament on Tuesday.
Davydenko, looking for his third successive title at the Austrian event, brushed aside Spain’s Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 6-3, 6-0 while fourth seed Hewitt saw off Argentina’s Sergio Roitman 6-2, 6-2.
There was no such joy for Croatian third seed Ivan Ljubicic and Austrian sixth seed Jurgen Melzer who suffered early exits.
Melzer, the last local left in the draw, lost his first-round meeting with Argentina’s Juan Monaco 6-3, 6-1, while Ljubicic crashed out 7-6, 6-4 in his second round encounter with Peru’s Luis Horna.
Davydenko is now the only seed remaining in the top half of the raw but the Russian world number four refused to be drawn on his chances of an Austrian hat-trick.
Davydenko, who won the 2005 title in St Poelten before the event was moved to Poertschach in 2006, will now face Ecuador’s Nicolas Lapentti in a tough-looking second-round clash.
Though now ranked 65th in the world, Lapentti is a former world number six who has won all three of his previous meetings with Davydenko.
Hewitt faces a somewhat easier looking second round challenge from Italian qualifier Potito Starace after disposing of Roitman in another one-sided encounter.
It was Hewitt’s first win at the tournament, following his first-round exit to unfancied Brazilian Marcos Daniel, and further proof of his return to form after a year of persistent injuries and poor results.
Results (x denotes seeding):
First round: Nikolay Davydenko (RUS x1) bt Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo (ESP) 6-3, 6-0; Juan Monaco (ARG) bt Jurgen Melzer (AUT x6) 6-3, 6-1; Lleyton Hewitt (AUS x4) bt Sergio Roitman (ARG) 6-2, 6-2; Nicolas Lapentti (ECU) bt Martin Verkerk (NED) 6-4, 7-6 (7/4).
Second round: Luis Horna (PER) bt Ivan Ljubicic (CRO x3) 7-6 (7/5), 6-4; Albert Montanes (ESP) bt Mathieu Montcourt (FRA) 7-6 (8/6), 6-1.
Sharapova, who missed two scheduled tournaments this year because of various injuries, beat Tsvetana Pironkova of Bulgaria 6-4, 7-6 in the second round to advance to the quarter-finals.
The fourth-seeded Williams routed Tatiana Poutchek 6-1, 6-2 in the first round.
Venus, the 2005 champion, will meet Aravane Rezai of France in the second round of the US$200,000 clay-court warm-up for Roland Garros.
Patty Schnyder beat Taiwan's Chan Yung-jan 6-1, 6-1 to set up a second-round meeting with Vania King of the US. Catalina Castano of Colombia defeated sixth-seeded Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-6, 6-2, while Meghann Shaughnessy of the US beat eighth-seeded Sania Mirza India, 6-4, 6-3.
Results:
First round: Meghann Shaughnessy (US) bt Sania Mirza (IND x8) 6-4, 6-3; Ekaterina Afinogenova (RUS) bt Sandra Kloesel (GER) 6-3, 5-7, 6-3; Vania King (US) bt Ipek Senoglu (TUR) 6-3, 7-5; Patty Schnyder (SWI x3) bt Yung-Jan Chan (TPE) 6-1, 6-1; Venus Williams (US x4) bt Tatiana Poutchek (BLR) 6-1, 6-2; Anastasija Sevastova (LAT) bt Anastasiya Yakimova (BLR) 6-1, 6-3; Catalina Castano (COL) bt Anna-Lena Groenefeld (GER x6) 7-6 (7/3), 6-2; Ekaterina Dzehalevich (BLR) bt Anna Tatishvili (GEO) 6-3, 7-5.
Second round: Maria Sharapova (RUS x1) bt Tsvetana Pironkova (BUL) 6-4, 7-6 (7/1).—Agencies
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