MOSCOW: Home favorite and third-seed Mikhail Youzhny cruised into the ATP Kremlin Cup second round with a straight-set win over Horacio Zeballos of Argentina here on Monday.
The 27-year-old Russian, 30th in the ATP rankings, came through his first ever meeting with Zeballos 6-1, 7-6 (7/5).
Youzhny started confidently producing three breaks in the opening set which he took in 26 minutes. In the second set Zeballos, ranked 54th in the world, broke early to clinch a 3-1 lead but Youzhny broke back in the sixth to level at 3-3.
In the tiebreak Youzhny’s greater accuracy prevailed as he won the set and the match in one hour 26 minutes.
“In the first set I was confident and fresh, while he (Zeballos) made too many mistakes,” Youzhny said.
“I took seven consecutive games but then lost my concentration for a while and lost a serve, while he was serving and returning much better. But it was my only mistake in the match and I managed to win the tiebreak.”
Fifth seed Pablo Cuevas of Uruguay, 52nd in the ATP rankings, also advanced into the second round beating Yen-Hsun Lu of Chinese Taipei 6-4, 6-2.
In the WTA section local favorite and fifth seed Nadia Petrova ousted unheralded 17-year-old compatriot Yana Buchina, who is 949th in the world, 6-2, 6-0 in their first ever meeting.
Monte Carlo resident Petrova, 27, looked in command from the start breaking wild card Buchina’s serve twice in the opening set after 31 minutes on court.
In the second set Petrova underlined her domination on the hardcourts of Moscow’s Olympic indoor stadium breaking her opponent for a 48-minute win.
“The match was so short and she (Buchina) was so nervous that she wasn’t going her way,” said Petrova, who finished runner-up here in 2006.
“For me the event’s opening match is usually uneasy and I also committed too many own mistakes today. I need to keep myself concentrated throughout the match to gain success here.”
In the second round Petrova will face unseeded Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko, who saw off 2006 champion Anna Chakvetadze of Russia, in straight sets 6-4, 6-3 in one hour 17 minutes.
Soderling gears up for
final drive to Tour Finals
In Stockholm, Roland Garros finalist Robin Soderling will have to wait until Wednesday to start this week’s campaign for a place in the ATP year-end event, with a match against qualifying lucky loser Giovanni Lapentti his first task at the Stockholm Open.
After flying into the Swedish capital from the Shanghai Masters at the weekend, the provisional number nine in the eight-man chase for the World Tour Finals starting on Nov. 22 has been re-acquainting himself with the temple of Swedish tennis, the Kungligahallen. Soderling has established himself as a top player since his French Open breakthrough, where he beat Rafael Nadal in the fourth-round to end his four year reign, then lost the final to Roger Federer. The Swede continued to thrust himself into year-end contention for one of three remaining spots in the eight-man field with a Wimbledon fourth round defeat by Federer and a New York quarter-final, where he was beaten by the Swiss again.
In the race to London’s final, Soderling stands behind Spain’s Fernando Verdasco, who is looking at property in Las Vegas and training for the next fortnight with Gil Reyes, former fitness guru of Andre Agassi. Even a Stockholm victory on Sunday would not be enough to put Soderling ahead of the inactive Verdasco, though it will close the points gap between the pair.
“I know that if I play well, I have a chance, but this tournament won’t decide who’s going to play in London,” said the Swede. “There’s still a lot of tennis to be played this year. “There’s a couple of big tournaments coming up (one is the Paris Masters to end the regular season). I have to keep on doing well the rest of the year.”
First-round opponent Lapentti, 224th-ranked younger brother of Ecuadornian pro Nicolas Lapentti, will be playing at the ATP level for only the second time this season after losing at the US Open to Simon Greul.
The German became the first winner on Monday, reaching the second round with an upset of sixth-seeded compatriot Benjamin Becker 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.
The winner overcame a dozen aces from the seed and broke three times against a player who has lost his last seven matches in the first round. Becker was unable to reverse the dubious trend in 1 hour, 43 min.
Spain’s Guillermo Garcia-Lopez beat a countryman as he put out Alberto Martin 6-3, 6-2 on opening day.
Fourth-seeded Argentine Juan Monaco spent just over two hours in holding off Czech Jan Hernych 6-2, 5-7, 7-5 for a second-round place.
The winner, a three-time ATP finalist in 2009, took his 33rd victory of the season.
