Tennis Capsules: Haas, Phau, Becker advance at San Jose
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Tommy Haas remembers when his first-round opponent, wild-card Devin Britton, was a ballboy. Then he watched him develop into a professional player.
Now he’s playing against him.
Haas needed a tiebreaker to beat Britton 6-4, 7-6 (3) in the first round of the SAP Open on Tuesday.
"His serve was working really well for him; not only really hard but with good placement and I could not get a good read on it," said Haas of Germany. "Also serving and volleying on second serve and mixing it up, that really surprised me. I played good at the times I needed. The first match is always tough anyway because you never know how you’re going to feel."
Haas remembered Britton as a youth and was on hand for his first professional match against Roger Federer at the U.S. Open.
"He played a pretty good game then," Haas said. "It’s hard to remember a ball boy because you met so many, and then having him turn pro is something special. That doesn’t happen very often."
Britton, who played in his third career main draw singles match on the ATP tour, became the youngest player to win the NCAA championship last May as a freshman at Mississippi.
"Some guys aren’t ready to turn pro right away," said Britton, who was once a ballboy for Haas. "For me, it was a great experience and I was able to mature a little bit. I had a lot of fun."
Bjorn Phau of Germany beat No. 8 Jeremy Chardy of France 6-3, 6-1.
American Michael Russell, who played in his first professional tournament two years ago when he was 15, beat lucky loser Kyu Tae Im of Korea 7-6 (8), 6-1.
No. 7 seed Sam Querry took care of Russian Teimuraz Gabashvili, 6-3, 6-2; teenager Ricardas Berankis, the former No. 1 junior in the world, beat American Robby Ginepri 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3; Benjamin Becker topped Tim Smyczek, 6-4, 6-2; and Philipp Kohlschreiber defeated Rajeev Ram 6-7 (7), 6-1, 6-3.
American Mardy Fish withdrew from his singles match because of a left knee injury, but plans to remain in the doubles draw with Sam Querry. The duo won their first doubles match on Monday and don’t play again until Thursday.
Fish, a two-time finalist here, had surgery on the knee in September and was able to compete in the Australian Open.
"For whatever reason, the knee is not where it needs to be and not 100 percent," Fish said in a statement. "It’s frustrating because I’ve always played well here. I want to be healthy and I’ve put a lot of work in to get ready."
Top-seeded Andy Roddick, who meets qualifier Ryler DeHeart in his first match Wednesday, nearly had to pull out of the tournament because of a knee injury suffered in Shanghai earlier in the year.
"It was a little touch-and-go for a while about playing here," the seventh-ranked Roddick said. "But I got the clearance I needed after the Australian Open. The first match will be telling. If I get through that one, I should be OK. I’m going to have to work my way into this tournament."
Oudin advances to 2nd round in Paris
PARIS — Melanie Oudin of the United States beat Sorana Cirstea of Romania 6-3, 6-0 on Tuesday to reach the Open GDF Suez’s second round.
Oudin, a U.S. Open quarterfinalist last year, next plays Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, who beat seventh-seeded Virginie Razzano of France 6-3, 7-6(3) at Stade Pierre de Coubertin.
Fourth-seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy also advanced after routing Vesna Manasieva 6-0, 6-0. She takes on Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic, who topped Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-0, 6-3.
Sixth-seeded Shahar Peer of Israel and Croatia’s Karolina Sprem will meet in the second round after comfortable victories. Sprem beat Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 7-5, 6-1, and Peer beat Alize Cornet 6-4, 6-1.
In other matches, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia ousted Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic 6-1, 6-0; Andrea Petkovic of Germany defeated Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 7-5, 6-2; and Tathiana Garbin of Italy outlasted Romanian qualifier Ioana Raluca Olaru in a 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Garbin next plays No. 8 Elena Vesnina of Russia and Pavlyuchenkova faces top-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, last year’s runner-up to Amelie Mauresmo. Second-seeded Flavia Pennetta of Italy will play Russia’s Alisa Kleybanova, who beat Julie Coin of France 7-5, 6-4.
Dementieva and Pennetta had byes into the second round.
Ferrero, Andreev finally post 2010 wins in Brazil
COSTA DO SAUIPE, Brazil — Top-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero won his first match of the year in a two-hour struggle with Argentina’s Eduardo Schwank 7-6 (4), 6-3 at the Brazil Open on Tuesday.
Ferrero, who’d made opening-round exits at Auckland and the Australian Open, had to break Schwank four times to win the second set. The Argentine reached the quarterfinals last week at Santiago.
Ferrero, the 2007 runner-up, moved onto a second-round match with Chile’s Nicolas Massu, the 2006 champion who beat Brazilian qualifier Rogerio Dutra Da Silva 6-4, 3-6, 6-4.
Fourth-seeded Igor Andreev also posted his first win of 2010 when he beat Potito Starace of Italy 6-2, 6-2. Andreev also finally won at his third attempt in the Brazil Open.
Thomaz Bellucci, fresh from his second career title on Sunday in Santiago, hit 10 aces in beating Brazilian countryman Thiago Alves 6-2, 7-5. Bellucci reached the final here last year.
Sixth-seeded Pablo Cuevas won 6-4, 6-3 against Filippo Volandri of Italy, and Juan Ignacio Chela, who has reached at least the quarterfinals three times, outlasted Peter Luczak of Australia 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-4. Seventh-seeded Horacio Zeballos retired with a hip injury while trailing Marcel Granollers of Spain 7-5, 3-0.
Other winners included qualifiers Portugal’s Rui Machado, Argentina’s Carlos Berlocq and Italy’s Fabio Fognini.
Djokovic, Youzhny advance; Llodra, Ljubicic lose
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Top-seeded Novak Djokovic had a winning return to the court when he advanced to the second round of the ABN Amro as Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine retired with a leg injury on Tuesday.
Djokovic was leading 6-2, 4-1 at the time.
The Serb was making his first tour appearance since losing in the Australian Open quarterfinals.
He’ll next face Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli, who beat 2008 Rotterdam champion Michael Llodra of France 6-1, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (6) in 2 hours, 37 minutes. Llodra fought back from 6-1 down in the final-set tiebreaker to even it at 6-6 before Chiudinelli won the tiebreaker.
Another former champ, 2007 winner Mikhail Youzhny, beat Kazakh qualifier Andrey Golubev 1-6, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (5) in 2:19 without a single break. Golubev broke the sixth seed twice, both times in the first set.
Seventh-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, a two-time Rotterdam finalist, was ousted by Julien Benneteau of France 6-3, 6-3.
Also, Turkish qualifier Marsel Ilhan beat Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-1, 6-4, and Dutch wild card Thiemo de Bakker defeated Czech lucky loser Jan Hajek 7-6 (5), 6-3.
Benneteau, Chiudinelli advance in Rotterdam
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands — Julien Benneteau of France and Switzerland’s Marco Chiudinelli have advanced to the second round of the ABN Amro indoor tennis tournament.
Benneteau ousted seventh-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-3, 6-3 on Tuesday in Rotterdam, Netherlands, while Chiudinelli knocked out 2008 champion Michael Llodra of France 6-1, 6-7(5), 7-6(6). Llodra fought back from 6-1 down to even the final set tiebreaker 6-6 before Chiudinelli took the match.
Marsel Ilhan of Turkey beat Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain 6-1, 6-4.
Top-seeded Novak Djokovic is scheduled to play his first match against Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine later Tuesday.
McEnroe says Federer is best men’s player in history
ZURICH — John McEnroe thinks Roger Federer is the best men’s tennis player of all time.
McEnroe, also considered one of the game’s greats, said Tuesday he ranks the Swiss star ahead of Rod Laver, the only man to win all four Grand Slam events in one year, and seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras.
Promoting an ATP Champions Tour event in Zurich, McEnroe said Laver was his idol and Sampras was the greatest grass-court player ever. But the American left-hander said Federer, who has won a record 16 Grand Slam titles, was the greatest of all.
McEnroe said Federer’s ability to average two Grand Slam titles a year was "phenomenally consistent and amazing."
