DELRAY BEACH, Florida, 15 September 2004 — Britain’s Greg Rusedski eliminated Belgium’s fourth-seeded Xavier Malisse 7-5, 4-6, 6-1 here Monday on the opening day of the $380,000 ATP International Championships.
Malisse was not the only seed defeated on the first day of the event. American Paul Goldstein ousted fifth seed Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 4-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7 4).
Another Croatian seed, No. 3 Mario Ancic, fared better. Ancic ousted American Jan-Michael Gambill 6-3, 6-4. The only other opening-day match saw France’s Jerome Golmard oust Belgian Dick Norman 7-5, 3-6, 6-4.
Top Seed Verdasco Stunned at Romanian Open
In Bucharest, top seed Fernando Verdasco from Spain was knocked out of the Romanian Open 7-6, 7-6 by home favorite Victor Hansecu yesterday. Verdasco is the third seed to fall at the first round stage following the exit of Albert Costa and Russian Nikolay Davydenko on Monday.
German second seed Florian Mayer had no problems in disposing of Dutchman Dennis Van Scheppingen 6-1, 6-1.
But experienced Frenchman Arnaud Clement fell 2-6, 7-6, 6-4 to unseeded qualifier Novak Djokovic from Serbia and Montenegro.
Dent Wins as Rain Disrupts China Open
In Beijing, torrential rain caused havoc at the China Open as American Taylor Dent and Noam Okun of Israel were the only players to reach the second round yesterday. Dent crushed Australian qualifier Peter Luczak 6-3 6-2, the seventh seed just getting off court before a deluge brought a premature halt to proceedings. Okun beat British qualifier Arvind Parmar by an identical score in the only other match completed on day two of the inaugural $500,000 tournament. Top seed Carlos Moya, Russian Marat Safin and Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero were among big-name players unable to take to the court as the rain washed out 11 first-round matches.
Kabchi Suffers Upset Defeat in Bali
In Bali, Maria Vento-Kabchi became the first seed to lose at the Wismilak International when she was upset 7-5, 6-1 by Korean Yoon Jeong Cho yesterday. The sixth-seeded Venezuelan, a semi-finalist in Bali last year, struggled to come to terms with a more consistent opponent who mixed up her game with high returns that Vento-Kabchi struggled to put away. Australian Nicole Pratt also fell, losing 7-6, 6-4 to Italy’s Flavia Pennetta. Australian qualifier Samantha Stosur earned a second-round clash with US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova by defeating Milogos Sequera of Venezuela 6-2, 7-6.
