MONTREAL, 8 August 2007 — Qualifier Robin Haase upset 10th-seeded Tomas Berdych 6-4, 7-5 Monday in the rain-delayed first round of the Rogers Cup.
Lleyton Hewitt beat Juan Carlos Ferrero 7-6, 6-4 in a match-up of former top-ranked players. Ferrero is ranked 17th by the ATP and Hewitt is 21st.
“My main focus is on the US Open, more than the ranking situation,” Hewitt said. “I feel like I’m a lot better player than where my ranking is sitting at. I’d like to say I’m a dangerous floater now.”
The 2001 US Open champion and 2002 Wimbledon winner won his 26th career title this year at Las Vegas, but has not played in nearly two months while recovering from a back injury.
Haase, ranked 103rd, broke serve for a 6-5 lead in the second set and served out the match for his first career win against a top-10 opponent. He’ll next face Marcos Baghdatis or Carlos Moya.
“To beat a player with the name Berdych is unbelievable,” Haase said. “It’s my best win, for sure. “Last week in Washington, I could have won against (Russian) Marat Safin too. I had chances, so I knew I could bring up my level.”
Berdych reached the quarterfinals at last year’s Rogers Cup, where he upset Rafael Nadal.
In a night match, Canada’s Frank Dancevic used precision serving to defeat towering Argentine teenager Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Dancevic advanced to play American qualifier Wayne Odesnik, who upset 11th seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 6-3, 4-6, 7-6. Dancevic, ranked 91st, beat Del Potro and Andy Roddick en route to his first ATP tournament final two weeks ago in Indianapolis.
Before a thin, but encouraging crowd in a late-night match at Uniprix Stadium, Dancevic gave up only four points on his serve while taking the opening set against the 6-foot-6 Del Potro — the youngest player in the tournament at 18.
Del Potro served out the second set, but Dancevic broke for a 3-1 lead in the third and didn’t look back, finishing the match with an ace.
It ended after midnight because Paul-Henri Mathieu needed 2 hours, 12 minutes in the first evening match to rally for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-0 win over 15th-seeded Guillermo Canas, the 2002 tournament champion. Canas had leads of 3-0 and 4-1 in the second set, then fell apart as the Frenchman stepped up his game.
In other matches, Argentina’s David Nalbandian ousted Alejandro Falla of Colombia 6-4, 6-3 and next will face 16th-seeded David Ferrer of Spain, who beat Ernests Gulbis of Latvia 6-2, 6-1.
Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland downed Lee Hyung-Taik of South Korea 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and Russia’s Mikhail Youzhny beat Sebastien Grosjean of France 6-2, 6-4.
Golovin Forced to Quit Match
Due to Hamstring Injury
In Carson, California, Tatiana Golovin, who recently returned to the WTA Tour following an injury, was forced to retire from her match against Tamarine Tanasugarn in the East West Bank Classic on Monday due to a sore right hamstring.
“I probably shouldn’t have even gone on the court,” said Golovin, the No. 11 seed who lost the first set 7-5. “I couldn’t put any weight on it.
“It started bothering me actually a few days ago after the match against Maria (Sharapova at the Acura Classic). I’m still coming back from injury and I think I might have overplayed a little, with doubles. I played like six matches in three days. “I had two days off and yesterday it felt better. Today it was sore again. When I went to hit before my match, after 10 or 15 minutes it started to get sore again and never went away. I shouldn’t even have started. From the beginning it was painful to watch and really painful for me to play. I wanted to give it a shot because you never know, sometimes it will go away. But it never did.”
Golovin wasn’t the only seeded player to lose Monday. No. 14 Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine was beaten, 1-6, 6-2, 6-3, by qualifier Yuliana Fedak, also of the Ukraine. No. 13 Sybille Bammer advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Laura Granville. Lucie Safarova, the 16th seed, was a 7-5, 6-2 winner over Olga Poutchkova.
No. 12 Li Na, of China, withdrew due to a stress fracture of her ribs and was replaced by Alberta Brianti, of Italy, who lost in the final round of qualifying.
Golovin, 19, of France, missed more than two months — including the French Open — after injuring her right ankle at Charleston, South Carolina, in mid April. She lost in the second round at Wimbledon. In the past two weeks she was eliminated in the second round at Stanford, and to Sharapova in the third round of the Acura Classic, where she also played doubles with Dinara Safina.
In other first round matches at The Home Depot Center, Kateryna Bondarenko beat Angelique Kerber 7-5, 6-1; Jill Craybas ousted Alla Kudryavtseva 7-5, 6-3; Michaella Krajicek beat Severine Bremond 6-3, 6-1; Gisela Dulko was a 7-5, 6-4 winner over Sun Tiantian; Okla Govortsova beat Julia Vakulenko 6-0, 6-3; Maria Kirilenko eliminated Elena Bovina, 7-6, 6-3; Virginie Razzano edged Zi Yan 6-4, 7-5; and wild card Madison Brengle ousted Flavia Pennetta 6-1, 6-3.
In the final match of the day, 30th-ranked Sania Mirza of India beat Canadian qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak 6-3, 6-2.
