Fish survives scare from qualifier Dancevic
Thursday, 26 February 2009
FLORIDA, Feb 25(AFP): Mardy Fish survived a scare from Canadian qualifier Frank Dancevic to win 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the ATP Delray Beach International Tennis Championship Tuesday.
The top-seeded Fish is looking to become the first American to win the 500,000 dollar hardcourt tournament since Jan-Michael Gambill in 2003.
Fish saved four of the five break points he faced and converted three of his nine to win the first career match-up between the two.
The world No. 20 and a top seed for the third time in his career, Fish is in search of his first ATP singles title since claiming the second of his career at Houston in 2006.
He will face countryman Vincent Spadea in the next round.
The difficult start of the season for Ernests Gulbis continued against popular Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis as the No. 3 seed suffered a 7-5, 6-2 setback.
The Latvian fell to 6-7 on the season and has now lost all three career meetings with Baghdatis, who blasted 13 aces to just one double fault.
Fourth-seeded Igor Kunitsyn also was eliminated in an upset by qualifier and fellow Russian Evgeny Korolev, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).
A pair of former champions were knocked out in the first round as unseeded German Tommy Haas (2006) was defeated by No. 7 Jeremy Chardy of France, 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 and Australian wild card Lleyton Hewitt (1999) was upended by eighth-seeded Lu Yen- Hsun of Taiwan 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.
Evan King, a 16-year-old American wild card, lost in his ATP tour debut, 6-2, 6-4 to Andrey Golubev.
Dudi Sela also advanced when German Philipp Petzschner retired trailing, 2-6, 1-4, as did Spadea, who came back from a set down to top German Denis Gremelmayr, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 and grab his first win of the season.
Germany's Mischa Zverev and Gilles Muller of Luxembourg also moved into the second round, defeating American qualifiers Taylor Dent and Ryan Sweeting, respectively.
The top-seeded Fish is looking to become the first American to win the 500,000 dollar hardcourt tournament since Jan-Michael Gambill in 2003.
Fish saved four of the five break points he faced and converted three of his nine to win the first career match-up between the two.
The world No. 20 and a top seed for the third time in his career, Fish is in search of his first ATP singles title since claiming the second of his career at Houston in 2006.
He will face countryman Vincent Spadea in the next round.
The difficult start of the season for Ernests Gulbis continued against popular Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis as the No. 3 seed suffered a 7-5, 6-2 setback.
The Latvian fell to 6-7 on the season and has now lost all three career meetings with Baghdatis, who blasted 13 aces to just one double fault.
Fourth-seeded Igor Kunitsyn also was eliminated in an upset by qualifier and fellow Russian Evgeny Korolev, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3).
A pair of former champions were knocked out in the first round as unseeded German Tommy Haas (2006) was defeated by No. 7 Jeremy Chardy of France, 7-6 (9/7), 6-3 and Australian wild card Lleyton Hewitt (1999) was upended by eighth-seeded Lu Yen- Hsun of Taiwan 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.
Evan King, a 16-year-old American wild card, lost in his ATP tour debut, 6-2, 6-4 to Andrey Golubev.
Dudi Sela also advanced when German Philipp Petzschner retired trailing, 2-6, 1-4, as did Spadea, who came back from a set down to top German Denis Gremelmayr, 2-6, 7-5, 6-1 and grab his first win of the season.
Germany's Mischa Zverev and Gilles Muller of Luxembourg also moved into the second round, defeating American qualifiers Taylor Dent and Ryan Sweeting, respectively.