ROTTERDAM, 17 February 2005 — Paradorn Srichaphan continued the rehabilitation of his season as he upset second seed Guillermo Coria 2-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-3 to book the first quarterfinal place at the ABM-AMRO Open yesterday.
The Thai ace didn’t crack after the Argentine easily lifted the opening set at the Ahoy stadium. Instead, the number 33 from Bangkok proceeded to lift his game, finally engineering victory after two hours, 22 minutes.
World number 5 Coria became the first top 10 victim for the Asian in two years. Paradorn has improved his 2005 record to 7-3 after a final at Chennai to start the season.
He has now gone three sets in both of his matches here, proof that his match toughness is starting to return.
Coria, who avoided the temptations of this month’s South American clay in order to get to work on faster surfaces leaves with two losses and a win following two weeks in Europe.
Sweden’s fifth seed Joachim Johansson produced a “modest” 14 aces in a victory over Taipei challenger Yeu-tzuoo Wang 6-2, 6-7 (2), 6-3 in their first-round clash.
The 22-year-old winner needed three match points to get the job done as he carried momentum form last week’s title in Marseille.
The number 9 has won two trophies this year and scored the first of his career a year ago this week in Memphis.
He next takes on senior compatriot Thomas Johnasson in the second round. “I know one thing: A Johansson is going to win,” said Joachim of his unrelated colleague.
Johansson has quickly built himself into one of the serving threats of the ATP, raining down a record-breaking 51 aces during a loss at the Australian Open against Andre Agassi.
“I never feel the pressure,” said the son of a tennis contemporary of Bjorn Borg, commenting on his first-ever rise to the ranking top ten.
“The only pressure I have is what I expect of myself.
“I want to play well and impose my game, but I don’t feel any other pressure out there. I’ve worked on a few things with my coach, and I’ve gotten better over the past 18 months or so.
“I feel physically strong, everything is starting to fall together for me, that makes it easy for me to play now.”
In other first-round contests, Ivan Ljubicic, losing weekend finalist against Johansson in France, put out seventh seed Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia 6-4, 1-6, 6-2.
Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka scored the biggest victory of his career as he beat France’s Sebastien Grosjean 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.
Wawrinka, the 2003 French Open junior champion, trains frequently with compatriot and world number 1 Roger Federer, who opens in the evening against Bohdan Ulihrach.
Should Federer win as expected, he will face his friend on Thursday in the second round. “We’ve trained together a lot and we are good friends on the circuit,” said Wawrinka, a 19-year-old qualifier.
Venus Sails Past Razzano
In Brussels, Venus Williams swept past France’s Virginie Razzano 6-3, 6-0 yesterday in a second round match in the Antwerp Diamond Games, a tournament she won in 2002 and 2003.
“My tennis was very good today,” said the American. “But it is no surprise to me because I feel very healthy and have been working well lately.”
Earlier, seventh seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland beat Frenchwoman Camille Pin 6-3, 4-6 , 6-1. Former world number one Kim Clijsters, who made a sucessful comeback from injury with an easy victory over Croatia’s Jelena Kostanic in the first round, was to play fifth-seeded Russian Nadia Petrova in the second round later yesterday.
Top Seeds Roddick, Zvonareva
Make Triumphant Memphis Starts
In Memphis, Tennessee, top seeds Andy Roddick and Vera Zvonareva opened with straight-set victories at an $860,000 ATP and WTA tournament Tuesday.
Roddick fired 11th aces, the last on match point, to defeat South Korea’s Lee Hyung-Taik 6-3, 6-4. The 22-year-old American won 89 percent of his first-serve points and never allowed Lee a break-point chance.
Roddick, who won his 16th career ATP title last week at San Jose, advanced to a second-round date against France’s Arnaud Clement, who ousted Italy’s Davide Sanguinetti 7-6 (7 1), 1-6, 6-1.
Defending champion Zvonareva of Russia made a successful start to her repeat bid with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Czech Michaela Pastikova. Zvonareva, ranked 11th, reached a second-round match with France’s 108th-rated Severine Beltrame. American third seed Meghann Shaughnessy, with only one player ranked above 70th in the world remaining in her half of the draw, opened with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over compatriot Laura Granville. She next faces Sweden’s Hana Sromova.
Two Asian women advanced in three sets. Korean Cho Yoon Jeong ousted Italy’s Antonella Serra Zanetti (ITA) 6-4, 1-6, 6-2 and Japanese qualifier Yuka Yoshida defeated Czech qualifier Katerina Bohmova 6-2, 5-7, 6-4.
American Jan-Michael Gambill bounced Czech fourth seed Jiri Novak 6-0, 6-4 while third-seeded compatriot Vinca Spadea advanced with a 7-5, 6-2 triumph over Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist.
Belgian fifth seed Xavier Malisse, who won his first ATP singles title earlier this month at Delray Beach, Florida, opened by beating Germany’s Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 6-3.
