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BASEL (Switzerland), Oct 21: Swiss fifth seed Stanislas Wawrinka fluffed two match points at his home tournament on Monday, crashing out 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 to Germany’s Benjamin Becker in the first round of the Swiss Indoors.
After easing through the first set with two breaks of serve to one, however, the Swiss number two endured a dramatic turn-around while serving for the match at 5-4 in the second. Within two points of victory at 30-30, Wawrinka was wrong-footed by a couple of powerful Becker winners and then outplayed as the German world No 137 edged the tiebreak 7-5.
The third set was an even messier affair with Wawrinka breaking ahead twice and twice being broken back. He then failed to convert two match points in Becker’s final service game, paying the price as Becker coolly clinched the tiebreak, 7-5 again, for the match.
Monday’s results (prefix number denotes seeding):
First round: 6-Igor Andreev (Russia) bt Juergen Melzer (Austria) 7-6 (7-5), 7-5; Benjamin Becker (Germany) bt 5-Stanislas Wawrinka (Switzerland) 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5); Feliciano Lopez (Spain) bt Marco Chiudinelli (Switzerland) 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (9-7); 8-Mardy Fish (US) bt Agustin Calleri (Argentina) 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
THREE-WAY RACE
LINZ (Austria): Venus Williams, Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska will be engaged in a three-way race at the Linz Open this week chasing the final two spots for next month’s season-ending WTA Championships.
Wimbledon champion Williams was virtually guaranteed a place in the Nov 4-9 Doha tournament after capturing her second title of the year in Zurich on Sunday.
The only way Radwanska can deny the American a berth in the eight-woman line-up is by winning the Linz Open and the Quebec City event next week.
Six players have so far qualified for Doha: Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, US Open champion Serena Williams, Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva, French Open winner Ana Ivanovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova.
Frenchwoman Alize Cornet was the highest seed in action in Linz at number eight on Monday. She overwhelmed Zheng Jie of China 6-3, 6-2.
Results:
First round: 8-Alize Cornet (France) bt Zheng Jie (China) 6-3, 6-2; Kaia Kanepi (Estonia) bt Melanie Klaffner (Austria) 6-4, 6-0; Katarina Srebotnik (Slovenia) bt Tamarine Tanasugarn (Thailand) 6-1, 7-5.
TURSUNOV DUMPED
ST PETERSBURG (Russia): Slovakia’s Dominik Hrbaty thrashed Russian sixth seed Dmitry Tursunov 6-1, 6-1 in the first round of the St Petersburg Open on Monday.
Results:
First round: Rainer Schuettler (Germany) bt
Igor Kunitsyn (Russia) 6-2, 6-3; Victor Hanescu (Romania) bt Evgeny Korolev (Russia) 6-1, 6-2; Dominik Hrbaty (Slovakia) bt 6-Dmitry Tursunov (Russia) 6-1, 6-1.—Reuters
