Ferrero missed two months this year with wrist and knee
injuries but had an impressive win last week in Stuttgart, where he clinched
his first title in 13 months. Stebe, a 20-year-old left-hander, reached the
quarterfinals there.
Also, German wild card Tobias Kamke upset seventh-seeded
Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina 6-1, 6-4.
German Davis Cup player Philipp Petzschner was upset by
qualifier Marsel Ilhan of Turkey 6-2, 4-6, 7-6 (5). He didn't want to talk
about his play after the match, instead turning to soccer.
Asked to comment on Ilhan's unexpected victory,
Petzschner replied, "I hope that HSV reaches the Europa League this
season."
When asked to describe how he managed to double-fault on
match point, Petzschner again mentioned the Hamburger SV Bundesliga soccer
club, saying it had acquired good new players. Petzschner has criticized for a
lackluster performance in the Davis Cup loss to France and for three straight
first-round losses.
Jarkko Nieminen of Finland beat 10th-seeded Alexandr
Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 1-6, 6-4, and fifth-seeded Gilles Simon of France
cruised past Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine 6-2, 6-1.
In Atlanta, at 31 and a longtime member of the ATP world
tour, James Blake knew what to expect coming back from a long rain delay.
"I think generally it favors the person who's down
because they've got a chance to stop the momentum and get back out there with a
new attitude where they feel like they're the underdog," he said.
"You've got a little bit of a nothing-to-lose attitude and you can play
your best tennis."
Blake rallied to win a second-set tiebreaker and overcame
a 1-hour, 18-minute rain delay Monday night for a 5-7, 7-6 (5), 6-2 victory
over Ernests Gulbis of Latvia in the first round of the Atlanta Tennis
Championships.
Blake will face No. 3 seed John Isner, his friend and
doubles partner, in the second round.
No. 8 seed Somdev Devvarman of India held off Ryan
Sweeting 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 to earn a second-round match against Japan's Tatsuma
Ito, a 7-6 (6), 6-4 winner over Michael Berrer of Germany.
Gilles Muller of Luxembourg beat No. 7 seed Alex
Bogomolov Jr., 6-3, 7-6 (6).
Michael Russell advanced to a second-round meeting with
No. 2 seed Kevin Anderson of South Africa with a straight-set win over Donald Young.
Isner, the runner-up to defending champion and top-seeded
Mardy Fish last year in Atlanta, isn't exactly looking forward to facing Blake.
On Tuesday, No. 5 seed Grigor Dimitrov, a former junior
No. 1, will face qualifier Rajeev Ram. Sixth-seeded Igor Kunitsyn of Russia
plays qualifier Marinko Matosevic of Australia
Isner, who starred at the University of Georgia and is
ranked 35th in the world, is looking forward to playing the crowd favorite for
the second straight year even though the event has moved seven miles south from
the swank Atlanta Athletic Club.
For Blake, the key to beating Gulbis timing his
opponent's serve.
Blake had to manage an emotional letdown even though the
stadium court of the Racquet Club of the South had nearly cleared out after the
rain delay.
In Baku, Azerbaijan, third-seeded Elena Vesnina has
advanced to the second round of the Baku Cup, beating fellow Russian Yana
Buchina 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 on Tuesday.
Down 2-0 in the third set, Vesnina called a medical timeout
and received treatment for her right shoulder.
When play resumed, Vesnina immediately recovered the
break, held two match points on her opponent's serve at 5-4 and closed out the
match on her third match point with a service return.
Vesnina will face France's Aravane Rezai in the second
round of the hardcourt tournament. Rezai routed 15-year-old Kamilla Farhad of
Azerbaijan 6-0, 6-2.
Fifth-seeded Monica Niculescu of Romania advanced when
Greece's Eirini Georgatou retired because of a left ankle injury. Georgatou,
down 5-1 when she quit, was taken to a hospital for examination.
Georgia's Anna Tatishvili upset eighth-seeded Russian
Evgeniya Rodina 6-4, 6-2, seventh-seeded Ksenia Pervak of Russia outlasted
Thailand's Noppawan Lertcheewakarn 3-6, 6-1, 7-5, and Russia's Elena Bovina
needed six match points and 2 hours, 38 minutes to edge Kazakh Zarina Diyas
6-0, 3-6, 7-5.
