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PARIS, Oct 31: Roger Federer will face Croatian Ivo Karlovic for the second time in five days when he enters the Paris Masters Series tournament on Wednesday.
The world No 1 struggled to beat Karlovic 7-6, 7-6 in the semi-finals of the Swiss Indoors in his home town Basel on Saturday.
Federer, who went on to win the tournament to make sure of finishing the season top of the world rankings for the fourth consecutive year, must face the tall Croatian’s formidable serve again.
Karlovic fired 14 aces to beat Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in a first-round match on Tuesday and now stands in the way of the Swiss, who had a first-round bye.
Fifth seed David Ferrer of Spain moved past American Mardy Fish 6-1, 7-6 in the second round and meets Czech Tomas Berdych, the 2005 tournament winner, who overcame Croatia’s Mario Ancic 6-3, 6-3.
German Tommy Haas, seeded ninth, moved closer to a Masters Cup spot by edging past Serbian qualifier Janko Tipsarevic 6-3, 6-7, 6-3, also in the second round.
Haas cemented his place at No 8 in the ATP Race and kept alive his hopes of making the Nov 11-18 season finale in Shanghai featuring the world’s top eight.
The German next meets Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny, who also stayed in the hunt for one of the two remaining tickets to China by dumping Chilean Fernando Gonzalez, the seventh seed, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Finn Jarkko Nieminen beat Argentine Juan Monaco 6-4, 6-4 to set up a second-round match against Britain’s No 1 Andy Murray, who was involved in a car crash on his way to his Paris hotel on Monday but escaped unhurt.
Nieminen, who lost to Federer in the Basel final on Sunday, took just 69 minutes to move past Monaco.
Murray, seeded 15th, won the St Petersburg Open on Sunday and is also still in the race for a place in Shanghai.
Spain’s Tommy Robredo, seeded eight, shrugged off a brave challenge from Frenchman Gilles Simon to win 6-4, 2-6, 6-4.
Fabrice Santoro, making his 14th appearance at the tournament, thrilled the home crowd by beating Spain’s Albert Montanes 7-6, 6-2 to set up a second-round clash with world No 3 Novak Djokovic.
Tuesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Second round: 12-Tomas Berdych (Czech Republic) beat Mario Ancic (Croatia) 6-3, 6-3; 8-Tommy Robredo (Spain) beat Gilles Simon (France) 6-4, 2-6, 6-4; 5-David Ferrer (Spain) beat Mardy Fish (US) 6-1, 7-6 (7-4); Mikhail Youzhny (Russia) beat 7-Fernando Gonzalez (Chile) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; 11-Guillermo Canas (Argentina) beat Andreas Seppi (Italy) 6-3, 7-6 (7-5); 9-Tommy Haas (Germany) beat Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3.
First round: Ivo Karlovic (Croatia) beat Fernando Verdasco (Spain) 4-6, 6-3, 6-4; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (France) beat Sebastien Grosjean (France) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Fabrice Santoro (France) beat Albert Montanes (Spain) 7-6 (7-4), 6-2; Filippo Volandri (Italy) beat Juergen Melzer (Austria) 6-0, 6-3; Nicolas Mahut (France) beat Teimuraz Gabashvili (Russia) 6-4, 7-6 (7-4); Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) beat Juan Monaco (Argentina) 6-4, 6-4.
DAVENPORT WINS
QUEBEC CITY (Canada): American Lindsay Davenport made the most of her wild card invitation with a 6-3, 6-3 victory over seventh seed Angelique Kerber in the WTA Bell Challenge on Tuesday.
Davenport, A three-time Grand Slam champion, is playing in her third tournament of the year after taking nearly a year off for the birth of her son, Jagger, in June.
Motherhood seems to agree with the 31-year-old, who returned to the court in September at Bali an won her 52nd career title.
She then reached the semi-finals in Beijing.
Davenport, facing the 19-year-old Kerber of Germany for the first time, encountered little resistance.
The only other match on Tuesday to feature a seeded player was eighth-seeded Olga Poutchkova’s 6-1, 6-2 victory over Kiwi qualifier Marina Erakovic.
Poutchkova, of Belarus, was whitewashed 6-0, 6-0, by France’s Marion Bartoli in the title match here last year. That was Poutchkova’s last appearance in a final.
Tuesday’s results:
First round: Stephanie Dubois (Canada) beat Abigail Spears (US) 6-1, 6-4; Lindsay Davenport (US) beat 7-Angelique Kerber (Germany) 6-3, 6-3; Alina Jidkova (Russia) beat Sunitha Rao (India) 6-4, 5-7, 6-4; 8-Olga Poutchkova (Russia) beat Marina Erakovic (New Zealand) 6-1, 6-2; Jill Craybas (US) beat Lilia Osterloh (US) 6-4, 2-6, 6-2; Severine Bremond (France) beat Marie-Eve Pelletier (Canada) 6-2, 6-3; Stephanie Foretz (France) beat Yaroslava Shvedova (Russia) 6-3, 6-4; Vania King (US) beat Anne Kremer (Luxembourg) 6-2, 6-1.—Agencies
