INDIANAPOLIS: Defending champion Dmitry Tursunov won his opening-round match at the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, rallying to beat Igor Kunitsyn 6-3, 7-5 on Monday night.
The third-seeded Tursunov, trailing 4-1 and serving 15-40 in the second set, saved his serve, then went on to win six of the last seven games against his fellow Russian doubles partner.
“I wasn’t serving well in the second set,” Tursunov said. “I don’t know what my first-serve percentage was (46 percent). I don’t know if it goes that low.
“I think he (Kunitsyn) tried to do too much with second serves. The key was to not get upset. You try to correct things as you go.”
Second-seeded Gilles Simon won his debut match, outlasting Nicolas Mahut 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. “I wanted to play on Tuesday, but they said that was impossible,” said the 25th-ranked Frenchman. “I did not expect to play my best match today. So I just did my best.” Simon’s best pushed him into Wednesday’s second round, where he will play Benjamin Becker of Germany. Becker swept Kristian Pless of Denmark, 6-3, 6-4.
Simon and Mahut spent much of their match in long baseline volleys. Simon scored points when he went to his backhand.
“The first set was a great set for me. I was feeling good on the court. The second set was really hard. Every shot was hard to play. I was feeling the heat,” Simon said. Simon said he’s in the United States to adapt to the heat and humidity and to get accustomed to the courts in preparation for the Masters series tournaments. He plans to play at Toronto and Cincinnati before heading for the Olympics, then returning to the US.
Also on Monday, Lu Yen-hsun of Taiwan outlasted qualifier Justin O’Neal of the United States, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (12), staving off three set points late in the tiebreaker. Australian Joseph Sirianni won when his opponent, Russia’s Mikhail Ledovskikh, withdrew in the second set after rolling an ankle. Sirianni won the first set 6-3, but was trailing 2-1 in the second set.
Bartoli opens Bank of West Classic with a win
In Stanford, California, sixth-seeded Marion Bartoli of France beat Akgul Amanmuradova of Uzbekistan 6-1, 6-3 on Monday night to open her campaign at the Bank of West Classic. Coming off a third-round loss at Wimbledon, Bartoli dominated the first set against Amanmuradova, but had trouble with her serve early in the second.
She double-faulted twice in losing the first game, then fell behind 3-1 in the second set before rallying to win the final five games.
In other first-round matches, Ukraine’s Kateryna Bondarenko beat American Ashley Harkleroad 7-5, 6-2; Alisa Kleybanova beat fellow Russian Elena Vesnina 4-6, 6-2, 6-3; Austria’s Sybille Bammer defeated Olga Govortsova of Belarus 7-5, 6-2; and Ai Sugiyama of Japan held on to beat Alexa Glatch of the United States, 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.
Lindsay Davenport, a three-time winner of the event, withdrew with a lingering knee injury after warming up Monday. Serena Williams hasn’t had much rest since losing to her sister Venus in the finals at Wimbledon earlier this month.Top-seeded Williams will play in her first tournament since Wimbledon in Wednesday’s featured match against either Michelle Larcher De Brito of Portugal or Argentina’s Gisela Dulko.
Anna Chakvetadze, Vera Zvonareva and Daniela Hantuchova all received first-round byes as well.
Top-seeded Seppi pulls out of Austrian Open
In Kitzbuehel, Austria, top-seeded Andreas Seppi withdrew from the Austrian Open yesterday shortly before the start of his first-round match against Nicolas Devilder of France.
The 24-year-old Italian didn’t give an explanation, but said tournament director Jurgen Pfauth would release a statement.
Seppi, ranked 34th, was to headline the tournament after the top three seeded players-Paul-Henri Mathieu, defending champion Juan Monaco and Juan Carlos Ferrero-all withdrew with injuries last week.
Seppi was replaced in the draw by Matthias Bachinger of Germany, who lost 6-3, 6-3 to Devilder.
Devilder next plays Alexander Peya of Austria, who lost the opening set to 2003 champion Guillermo Coria 7-5 but advanced when the Argentine retired with a right shoulder injury before the start of the second set.
Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain upset third-seeded Agustin Calleri of Argentina 6-4, 6-4. The 49th-ranked Calleri, who won the event in 2006, lost serve three times but saved 11 break points.
Juan Martin del Potro beat Josselin Ouanna of France 6-3, 6-3. The seventh-seeded Argentine, who won last week’s Mercedes Cup for his first ATP title, was in control of the match throughout.
Victor Hanescu also advanced, rallying from a 5-3 deficit in the third set to beat Pablo Andujar of Spain 6-3, 1-6, 7-6 (2).
The 26-year-old Romanian, who won his first ATP event at the Swiss Open last Sunday, trailed 2-0 in the tiebreaker before winning seven straight points to close out the match.
No. 8 Olivier Rochus was eliminated after Ivo Minar of the Czech Republic rallied to beat the Belgian 3-6, 6-4, 6-0. No. 4 Potito Starace, No. 5 Eduardo Schwank and No. 6 Jurgen Melzer all had straight-set victories.
Also, Daniel Brands of Germany defeated Eric Prodon of France 6-3, 6-4; Brian Dabul of Argentina beat Stephane Bohli of Switzerland 6-1, 6-1; and Daniel Koellerer of Austria defeated Philipp Oswald 7-6 (5), 7-6 (4).
Sergio Roitman of Argentina beat Martin Fischer of Austria 6-4, 6-2; and Jan Hernych of the Czech Republic defeated Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain 7-5, 7-5.
Benesova advances to second round
