Argentines Carlos Berlocq and Facundo Bagnis won their openers at the ATP Buenos Aires while Leonardo Mayer was ousted. David Nalbandian will play Wayne Odesnik today. Chela and Mónaco also debut.
Argentine world number 43 Carlos Berlocq reached the second round of the ATP Buenos Aires after beating Spaniard Pere Riba (90) 6-7 (5-7) 6-0 6-0 yesterday at the main court of the Buenos Aires Lawn Tennis.
The player born in Chascomús easily overcame the deficit of the first set’s loss in tiebreak, winning the next 12 games to clinch the match in two hours and 26 minutes. Berlocq will next play Frenchman Gilles Simon or Rui Machado of Portugal.
Argentine Facundo Bagnis also advanced to the second round as he beat fellow countryman Leonardo Mayer 5-7 6-4 6-2 in 2 hours 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, Romanian Victor Hanescu defeated Spaniard Pablo Andújar 6-3 4-6 7-6 (7-4) and will next meet Kei Nishikori of Japan, who beat Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain 7-5 3-6 6-2.
Fernando González of Chile also reached the second round when Spaniard Albert Montañés retired due to a back injury with González leading 7-5 1-0
Argentine Horacio Zeballos faced Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka late yesterday.
Members of Argentina’s Davis Cup team David Nalbandian, Juan Mónaco and Juan Ignacio Chela will debut today. Chela is scheduled to face Spaniard Albert Ramos at 12.30pm followed by the match between Mónaco and Italian Filippo Volandri. Nalbandian will face Wayne Odesnik of the US in the night session.
Meanwhile, in Marseille, Ivan Ljubicic hit 27 aces en route to beating Florent Serra of France 6-4 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 and reach the second round of the Open 13.
Also, Edouard Roger-Vasselin of France downed Jarkko Nieminen of Finland 6-2 7-6 (7-4). Roger-Vasselin will play Flavio Cipolla, who defeated eighth-seeded Andreas Seppi 6-4 7-6 (7-4) in an all-Italian match.
Four-seeded Juan Martin del Potro will face tomorrow the winner of today’s match between Russian Nikolay Davydenko and German Andreas Beck.
In Memphis, Ivan Dodig of Croatia beat eighth-seeded Bernard Tomic of Australia 5-7 6-4 7-6 (10-8) in the opening round of the Regions Morgan Keegan Championships. Among those advancing to the second round in the Memphis International, the accompanying women’s event, were third-seeded Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic, No. 4 Marina Erakovic of New Zealand and Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands, who upset No. 6 Elena Baltacha of Britain 6-2 6-1.
In other women’s event, top-ranked Victoria Azarenka will meet Germany’s Julia Goerges in her opening match tomorrow in Dubai. Goerges advanced to the second round yesterday after defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, 2-6 7-6 (7-2) 6-4.
Eighth-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia also advanced to the second round after routing Petra Cetkovska of the Czech Republic 6-2 6-2 in her opening match in just over an hour.
Russian Nina Bratchikova defeated fellow countrywoman Anastasia Pivovarova 6-3 6-1 to reach the second round at the Monterrey Open.
Herald staff with agencies
Source: Buenos Aires Herald