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HAMBURG (Germany), May 14: Nikolay Davydenko and David Ferrer moved smartly into the third round of the Hamburg Masters on Tuesday, while Tommy Robredo came back from the brink to win a first-round thriller against Philipp Kohlschreiber.
Davydenko, the Russian fourth seed, helped himself to a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic, while Spain’s Ferrer, seeded fifth, was equally impressive in a 6-3, 6-3 win over Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic.
Tuesday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):
Second round: Andreas Seppi (Italy) bt 8-Richard Gasquet (France) 6-3, 6-2; 5-David Ferrer (Spain) bt Ivo Minar (Czech Republic) 6-3, 6-3; 4-Nikolay Davydenko (Russia) bt Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) 6-4, 6-1; Fernando Verdasco (Spain) bt Michael Llodra (France) 6-2, 6-0.
First round: Jarkko Nieminen (Finland) bt Rainer Schuettler (Germany) 6-1, 6-3; Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) bt Alberto Martin (Spain) 6-3, 6-3; 13-Tommy Robredo (Spain) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3; Robin Soderling (Sweden) bt Igor Andreev (Russia) 4-6, 6-3, 6-3; 11-Carlos Moya (Spain) bt Julien Benneteau (France) 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (9-7); Janko Tipsarevic (Serbia) bt Andreas Beck (Germany) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1; Potito Starace (Italy) bt Luis Horna (Peru) 6-3m 4-2 – Horna retired; Jose Acasuso (Argentina) bt Kristof Vliegen (Belgium) 5-2 – Vliegen retired.
RAIN HITS ROME EVENT
ROME: Venus Williams’s return from over a month on the sidelines with an unspecified medical problem was delayed on Tuesday as rain forced play to be abandoned at the Italian Open.
Only four matches were completed before organisers suspended play all together.
Russian world No 2 Maria Sharapova was scheduled to start her Italian Open campaign on Wednesday against Dominika Cibulkova after the Slovak beat Argentine Gisela Dulko 7-6, 6-4 in the first round.
Results:
First round: Tsvetana Pironkova (Bulgaria) bt Klara Zakopalova (Czech Republic) 6-4, 6-2; Victoria Azarenka (Belarus) bt 19-Sybille Bammer (Austria) 6-1, 6-3; Roberta Vinci (Italy) bt Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) 6-4, 4-6, 6-0; Dominika Cibulkova (Slovakia) bt Gisela Dulko (Argentina) 7-6 (7-1), 6-4.—Agencies
