ESTORIL, Portugal, 27 April 2005 — Top seed Carlos Moya began on a hot streak but had to fight off a cool spell on the clay before finally scraping past Felix Mantilla 6-0, 7-6 (7-5) yesterday in the opening round at the Estoril Open.
In other first round action men’s holder Juan Chela, who beat Marat Safin for the 2004 title, went down without a fight, losing to outsider Juan Antonio Marin 6-1, 6-2.
Moya, the 1998 Roland Garros champion whose 2005 clay campaign has been far from ideal, looked like ripping through easily for his eighth victory from 13 meetings against his 30-year-old compatriot.
The top seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta, was reduced to the role of a spectator at the WTA dual event after opening with an upset loss against Olga Savchuk of the Ukraine 6-3, 7-6 (10 8).A pair of Chinese seeds advanced, with No. 4 Na Li defeating France’s Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-4, 1-6, 6-3 while Jie Zheng beat Slovak Henrieta Nagyova 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
There was a win for Argentine Mariana Diaz-Oliva over Portuguese-Canadian Melanie Gloria 6-1, 6-1, and Czech Lucie Safarova upset eighth seed Virginia Ruano Pascual 7-5, 6-7 (3-7), 6-0.
Paradorn Cruises Into BMW Open Last 16
In Munich, Germany, Thailand’s Paradorn Srichaphan eased into the last sixteen of the 323,250 euro ($419,754) BMW Open with a straight sets victory over Dutchman Peter Wessels yesterday.
Seventh seed Paradorn took the first set 6-3 and triumphed 6-4 in the second to face Juan Monaco of Argentina in the next round.
Monaco overcame Lars Burgmuller 7-5, 6-3 in his first round match.
German fourth seed Tommy Haas was another big gun to progress inflicting a 7-5, 6-3 defeat on Spaniard Nicolas Alagro.
Alagro shocked former World No. 2 Haas with some fierce forehands and the German needed some fortunate net deflections before taking the first set 7-5.
Russia’s sixth seed Igor Andreev dismissed Czech Jiri Vanek 6-1, 6-2 and will face Australia’s Wayne Arthurs in the last sixteen.
Arthurs, ranked 43 in the 2005 ATP tour race, defeated Georgian Irakli Labadse 6-3, 6-3 in his first round match.
Clijsters Struggles, Justine Impresses
In Warsaw, Kim Clijsters looked uneasy during her first claycourt match of the season before finishing with a flourish to earn a 7-5, 6-7, 6-1 victory over Tatiana Perebiynis in the first round of the WTA tournament in Warsaw.
Compatriot Justine Henin-Hardenne, winner on the green clay in Charleston recently, was also in action yesterday, overcoming Czech qualifier Denisa Chladkova 6-2, 6-2.
Seventh seed Clijsters looked as though she was in for an easy afternoon as she broke in the second game and held two break points for a 4-0 lead. Ukrainian Perebiynis hit back to stun the former world No. 1, breaking back in a lengthy seventh game before Clijsters sneaked the set.
Finally Clijsters made her class tell in the decider as she romped to her 15th consecutive victory after titles at Indian Wells and Miami.
In other matches, sixth seed Nathalie Dechy of France defeated Bulgaria’s Magdalena Maleeva 6-4, 6-4 while eighth seed Italian Silvia Farina Elia of Italy overwhelmed Czech Michaela Pastikova 6-2, 6-0. Venezuela’s Maria Vento-Kabchi also advanced when ninth seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy retired with a left leg injury when trailing 5-1.
