BEIJING, Sept 13: Argentina’s Guillermo Coria and David Nalbandian shook off the effects of jet-lag to progress to the second round of the China Open without drama on Tuesday.
Second seed Coria brushed aside Chinese qualifier Zeng Shaoxuan 6-2 6-1 while Davis Cup team mate Nalbandian overcame Denmark’s Kristian Pless 6-3 7-6 to reach the last 16.
Top seed Rafael Nadal will have to wait until Wednesday to play his first round match after his Taiwanese opponent Wang Yeu-tzuoo failed to arrive in Beijing.
Coria’s first match since losing a tough five-setter to American Robby Ginepri in the U.S. Open quarter-finals was little more than a gentle work-out against the inexperienced Zeng.
Only the top eight players in the world qualify for the season-ending Masters Cup. Nalbandian is behind Coria at nine.
The form that took him to the U.S. Open quarterfinals briefly threatened to desert Nalbandian as the number three seed went an early break down to Pless in a rapid-fire first set.
But the 2002 Wimbledon finalist quickly broke back to 3-3 before taking the opener in just 15 minutes.
Nalbandian had to save two set points in the second but proved too strong in the tiebreak, winning it 7-2. He next plays Israeli qualifier Amir Hadad, who toppled big-serving Belgian Dick Norman 7-5 7-6.
Former Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson ousted fellow Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-4 6-3 in the day’s opening match following a two-hour rain delay.
Fourth seed Johansson takes on Jarkko Nieminen in the second round after the Finn’s easy 6-4 6-2 victory over Germany’s Rainer Schuettler.
Nadal’s opponent Wang told organisers he had business to conduct in Turkey and China Open officials could decide to hand the Spanish 19-year-old a walkover.
Results: Mikhail Youzhny bt Nathan Healey 7-5 6-4; Jarkko Nieminen bt Rainer Schuettler 6-4 6-2; Guillermo Coria) bt Shao Xuan Zeng 6-2 6-1; David Nalbandian bt Kristian Pless 6-3 7-6(2); Yu Wang Jr. bt Luka Gregorc 7-6(5) 6-1; Amir Hadad bt Dick Norman 7-5 7-6(7); Thomas Johansson bt Jonas Bjorkman 6-4 6-3.
NUSA DUA (Indonesia): India’s controversial rising star Sania Mirza became on Tuesday the first seed to be knocked out of the US$225,000 WTA Wismilak tennis tournament on the Indonesian resort island of Bali.
Eighth-seeded Mirza, 18, lost her first-round singles match 6-3, 6-2 in just 57 minutes to unseeded Russian Ekaterina Bychkova.
Sania mania gripped India when she reached the third round of the Australian Open in January, won the WTA Hyderabad Open in February and beat reigning US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in Dubai in March.
Although knocked out of singles play in Bali, Mirza is to play in a doubles match on Wednesday.
Results (first round): Zi Yan bt Wynne Prakusya 6-2, 7-5; Laura Pous Tio bt Meghann Shaughnessy 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; Aiko Nakamura bt Tomoko Yonemura 7-6 (9/7), 7-5; Anna Lena Groenefeld bt Karolina Sprem 7-5, 5-7, 6-3; Jie Zheng bt Maria Vento-Kabchi 6-3, 6-4; Virginia Ruano Pascual bt Tiantian Sun 6-2, 6-2; Ekaterina Bychkova bt Sania Mirza 6-3, 6-2; Alicia Molik bt Mariana Diaz-Olivia 7-6 (8/6), 6-3.—Agencies
