CINCINNATI, Ohio, 16 August 2007 — Defending champion Andy Roddick advanced without difficulty Tuesday while Britain’s Andy Murray was drummed out with ease at the $2.2 million ATP Cincinnati Masters.
Third seed Roddick, given a bye into the second round, booked the first spot in the third round as he unleashed 13 aces to swamp Spain’s Fernando Verdasco 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.
Murray continued to struggle as he recovers from a wrist injury, losing 6-1, 6-2 to unseeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis, who needed a mere 48 minutes to send the Scotsman to a lopsided loss for a second straight week.
Roddick improved to 8-2 over Verdasco and left the American at 25-5 at this US Midwest tournament, which he won in 2003 and 2006.
“It feels like home here,” said Roddick. “That counts for a lot. I got better as the match went on, that’s better than the alternative.”
Murray said he will train before going to next week’s event in New Haven, his last chance to prepare before the US Open starts on Aug. 27.
“I’ve only played a few matches since I came back,” he said. “The movement and the anticipation are the things that might take a bit of time to come back.”
In Montreal, the 16th-ranked standout who missed three months with his wrist tendon trouble beat American Robby Ginepri in his first match back then lost badly to Italian qualifier Fabio Fognini.
Lleyton Hewitt struggled for a shade under three hours to subdue Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-5, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5).
The former world No. 1, a two-time finalist at the US Midwest event, overcame a patchy day on serve with eight double-faults and just four aces.
Wawrinka, the No. 2 Swiss behind Roger Federer, played the final on clay in Stuttgart against Rafael Nadal last month but has been unable to carry over that form. The world No. 49 has won just one match out of his last four. Mario Ancic, back after six months away with glandular fever, upset Germany’s Tommy Haas 3-6, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3 and Argentine Juan del Potro put out Guillermo Canas 6-2, 6-2.
Federer and Nadal learned the names of second-round opponents as Julien Benneteau and Juan Monaco won through.
Frenchman Benneteau defeated Russian Dmitry Tursunov 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 to move into a match-up against Federer while Argentine Monaco faces Nadal by virtue of a 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 defeat of Spain’s Feliciano Lopez.
Robby Ginepri became the third American into the second round with a win over Swede Jonas Bjorkman 6-3, 6-3.
Kuznetsova Makes
Triumphant Return
In Toronto, Russian third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova made a triumphant return in her first match since Wimbledon, defeating Italy’s Roberta Vinci 6-2, 7-6 (9-7) on Tuesday at a $1.34 million WTA tournament.
Kuznetsova, the 2003 US Open champion, has not won a WTA title or advanced past the quarter-finals at a Grand Slam event this season, but she reached the finals at Indian Wells, Berlin and Rome. Kuznetsova, 22, broke Vinci for the second time to close the first set and rallied from 6-5 down in the tie-breaker to win four of the last five points and book a third-round date with either Czech Lucie Safarova or American Meghann Shaughnessy. China’s Peng Shuai advanced to the third round when a virus forced Slovenia’s Katarina Srebotnik to retire in the second set of the US Open tuneup event, which pays a top prize of $181,980. Peng led 6-1, 4-2 when Srebotnik — a quarterfinalist in her past two appearances in the event — quit the match, advancing the Chinese standout to a possible third-round match against top seed Justine Henin of Belgium.
Also advancing to the third round was Israel’s Shahar Peer, who eliminated Italy’s Tathiana Garbin 6-3, 6-2.
Peer reached the quarterfinals last year in her first appearance at this event.
