BASTAD, Sweden, 7 July 2005 — Argentina’s Mariano Zabaleta, defending the title he won in 2003 and 2004, moved into the quarter-finals of the Swedish Open by beating fourth seed Carlos Moya of Spain 7-6, 6-2 yesterday.
The 27-year-old Zabaleta is playing his first tournament since a two and a half month injury absence. His layoff did not seem to affect him against Moya as he put the former French Open champion under constant pressure from the baseline. Moya ran out of steam after losing the first-set tiebreak 7-3 as the unseeded Zabaleta clinched a meeting with Czech Tomas Berdych in the last eight.
Berdych advanced with a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Spain’s Nicolas Almagro.
Russian sixth seed Mikhail Youzhny also reached the quarterfinals when he defeated Sweden’s Andreas Vinciguerra 4-6, 7-6, 7-5.
Vinciguerra, twice a finalist here, served for the match at 5-3 in the second set and also had a match point at 6-5. But Youzhny eventually won the set 7-4 on a tiebreak and also took the decider.
Gaudio Waits All Day
to Take Gstaad Victory
In Gstaad, Switzerland, second seed Gaston Gaudio waited out the weather before finally producing a 6-2, 6-2 evening victory over Davide Sanguinetti to reach the quarterfinals of the 421,250-euro Swiss Open yesterday.
The Argentine who played and lost the 2002 final on the high altitude clay of this alpine village against Alex Corretja, kept his nerve on a frustrating day of inactivity after drizzle looked like washing out the second round.
Gaudio is playing at his first event since the French Open after skipping the grass campaign to let a shoulder injury heal.
Before drizzle began in earnest around mid-day, one set was played, with Romanian qualifier Razvan Sabaul leading Sargis Sargsian 6-4 after 49 minutes.
The 28-year-old from Bucharest was able to finish the job 6-4, 6-4 as he finally beat his 32-year-old opponent after light rain stopped after more than six hours of interruption. Andreas Seppi made up for countryman Sanguinetti’s disappointment as he upset fifth seed Ivan Ljubicic 7-6 (7-4), 6-3.
